Tai Chi Ranks Second Among Exercise Types for Improving Quality of Life in Breast Cancer Survivors

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With breast cancer survival rates now approaching 90% and millions of survivors worldwide, maintaining and improving quality of life after treatment has become a key concern. Exercise is widely recommended as a non-pharmacological support, yet previous research has often grouped very different types of exercise together, making it difficult to know which specific modality works best.

This systematic review and network meta-analysis searched six major databases, identifying 69 randomised controlled trials involving over 5,000 breast cancer survivors from 19 countries. By using a statistical technique called network meta-analysis, the researchers were able to compare multiple exercise types simultaneously — including Tai Chi, Qigong, yoga, aerobic exercise, resistance training, combined exercise, high-intensity interval training, and Pilates — against usual care and against each other.

Almost all exercise types were associated with meaningful improvements in quality of life compared with usual care. Combined exercise (aerobic plus resistance training) ranked highest overall. Tai Chi ranked second, showing a standardised mean difference of 0.98 and a surface-under-the-cumulative-ranking-curve score of 71.5%, placing it ahead of aerobic exercise, Qigong, yoga, and resistance training alone. High-intensity interval training and Pilates did not reach statistical significance compared with usual care in this analysis.

Conclusion: Tai Chi appears to be among the more effective individual exercise modalities for improving quality of life in breast cancer survivors, though combined exercise programmes that integrate aerobic and resistance components showed the greatest overall benefit in this network meta-analysis.

Source: Zhao X, Wang Y, Yi Y and colleagues. Frontiers in oncology (2026). View on PubMed (PMID 42180084) · doi:10.1161/circulationaha.117.024671

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