RESUMO
Disturbance of oxygen-carbon dioxide homeostasis has an impact on cancer. Little is known about the effect of breath training on cancer patients. Here we report our 10-year experience with morning breathing exercises (MBE) in peer-support programs for cancer survivors.We performed a cohort study to investigate long-term surviving patients with lung cancer (LC) and nasopharyngeal cancer (NPC) who practiced MBE on a daily basis. End-tidal breath holding time (ETBHT) after MBE was measured to reflect improvement in alveolar O2 pressure and alveolar CO2 pressure capacity.Patients (female, 57) with a diagnosis of LC (90 patients) and NPC (32 patients) were included. Seventy-six of them were MBE trainees. Average survival years were higher in MBE trainees (9.8â±â9.5) than nontrainees (3.3â±â2.8). The 5-year survival rate was 56.6% for MBE trainees and 19.6% for nontrainees (RRâ=â5.371, 95% CIâ=â2.271-12.636, Pâ<â0.001). Survival probability of the trainees further increased 17.9-fold for the 10-year survival rate. Compared with the nontrainees, the MBE trainees shows no significant differences in ETBHT (baseline, Pâ=â0.795; 1-2 years, Pâ=â0.301; 3-4 years, Pâ=â0.059) at baseline and within the first 4 years. From the 5th year onwards, significant improvements were observed in ETBHT, aCO2%, PaCO2, and PaO2 (Pâ=â0.028). In total, 18 trainees (40.9%) and 20 nontrainees (74.1%) developed new metastasis (RRâ=â0.315, 95% CIâ=â0.108-0.919, Pâ=â0.031).MBE might benefit for the long-term survival in patients with LC and NPC due to improvement in hyperventilation.