Ballroom dancing as physical activity for patients with cancer: a systematic review and report of a pilot project.

BACKGROUND: Physical activity has positive effects on cancer patients. Dancing addresses diverse bio-psycho-social aspects. Our aim was to assess the evidence on ballroom dancing and to develop the setting for a pilot project. METHODS: We performed a systematic review, extracted the data and designed a pilot training based on standard curricula. We included cancer patients during or after therapy. Training duration was 90 min with one regular pause and individual pauses as needed. RESULTS: We retrieved two systematic reviews and six controlled studies. Types of dancing varied. Only one study used ballroom dancing. Dance training might improve well-being, physical fitness, fatigue and coping during and after therapy. Yet, evidence is scarce and data to derive the effect size are lacking; 27 patients and their partners took part in the pilot training. Patients and partners needed more time to learn the steps than is planned in regular ballroom classes. Participants were very satisfied with the adaptation of the training to their physical strength and estimated the training in a sheltered group. No side effects occurred. In spite of a high rate of participants reporting fatigue, 90 min of physical activity with only a few minutes of rest were manageable for all participants. CONCLUSION: Ballroom dancing may offer benefits for patients with respect to quality of life. Cancer patients prefer sheltered training setting and curricula of regular ballroom classes must be adapted for cancer patients. Strict curricula might reduce motivation and adherence and exclude patients with lower or variable fitness.