Group exercise interventions and their impact on patient-reported outcomes in urologic, gynecologic, and breast cancers

Background/objective Patients with urologic, gynecologic, and breast malignancies experience unique treatment-related side effects that can be socially isolating. While group-based exercise can provide social support, its impact on these patients remains unclear. This review aims to examine patient-reported outcomes related to participation in group exercise in these patients. Methods We performed a systematic review of randomized control trials and prospective cohort studies that compared group-based exercise to usual care or individual exercise in patients with a urologic, gynecologic, or breast malignancy and examined patient-reported metrics. PubMed/MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL, SPORTDiscus, Web of Science, and Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews were searched between January 2005 and December 2025. Results We identified 973 studies and 14 met inclusion criteria. Of the included articles, 9 included breast, 4 included prostate, and 1 included bladder cancer patients, representing 1128 patients. Group exercise was performed in supervised groups or teams of 3–14 participants in a community or hospital facility. Compared to individual exercise, a group exercise intervention showed an improvement in patient-reported quality of life in 1 study where group dynamics were measured. Conclusion This review was unable to show an advantage in group-based exercise compared to individual exercise with regard to patient-reported quality of life for patients with a breast, prostate, or bladder cancer. However, our study is limited by the absence of measured positive group dynamic in each study. Future investigations will include qualitative and quantitative measures of group dynamic and group cohesion to determine the potentially socially supportive role of group-based exercise interventions.