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IARC 60th Anniversary - 19-21 May 2026

Session : Lifestyle Interventions for Cancer Prevention

The efficacy and feasibility of a structured yoga -program on quality of life among ovarian cancer survivors: A pilot randomised controlled trial

SINGH A. 1, KUNDAL S. 1, SHUKLA A. 1, KUMARI R. 1, TOMAR S. 1, SINGHAL S. 1, MEENA J. 1, SHARMA G. 1, BHATLA N. 1

1 All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India

Background: Cancer survivorship is a state of being which includes the perspectives, needs, health, and the physical, psychological, social, and economic challenges experienced by people and caregivers after a cancer diagnosis. Ovarian cancer survivorship is often complicated by treatment-related sequelae such as fatigue, anxiety, and impaired quality of life (QOL). Integrative interventions such as yoga have shown benefits in breast and other cancer survivors, but evidence among ovarian cancer survivors remains limited. 
 
Objectives: The objectives were to evaluate the efficacy and feasibility of strutured Yoga program on health-related QOL among epithelial ovarian cancer survivors.
 
Methods: This prospective, randomised controlled pilot trial was conducted at a tertiary care centre between August 2023 and June 2025. It included 60 ovarian cancer survivors who were randomised (1:1) to yoga (n=30) and control arm (n=30). Inclusion criteria were ovarian cancer survivors 18-65 years of age, completed treatment 6 months prior to randomisation and willing to attend yoga sessions. Yoga arm performed structured, validated yoga module comprising supervised sessions twice weekly and home practice three times weekly over 12 weeks, while the control arm received routine care. The health-related QOL was measured using the Short Form-36 (SF-36). SPSS version 25.0 (IBM
Corp., Armonk, NY, USA) was used for statistical analysis . The independent and paired sample t-test and was used to assess inter/intra-group comparisons. P-value <0.05 was considered as significant. 
 
Results: The participants were comparable in terms of age (46.0±9.0 vs 46.9±9.3 ;p= 0.5), and BMI (22.0±3.2 vs 23.8±2.8 kg/m2  ;P=0.3). Most of the participants were advanced stage ovarian cancer survivors (stage III & IV) in both yoga arm (n= 23, 76.67%) and control arm (n=20, 66.67%) . At time of recruitment, both the arms had comparable scores across eight domains of SF-36. At 12 weeks, participants in the yoga arm showed better scores across most SF-36 domains, though inter-group differences were not statistically significant. Physical and mental component summary scores were higher in the yoga arm compared to controls (PCS: 1908.2 ± 360.8 vs 1794.8 ± 336.4, p=0.22; MCS: 834.2 ± 156.6 vs 798.1 ± 137.4, p=0.35). Feasibility, as measured by the number of participants recruited compared to the number that actually enrolled in the study came to be 75.9% . No participant in yoga arm reported any side-effect.
 
Conclusion: This study highlighted favourable impact of yoga on quality of life among epithelial ovarian cancer survivors on certain domains of quality of life including physical functioning, energy and fatigue, emotional, social functioning and overall general health. Incorporating yoga as an intervention in survivorship care of gynaecological cancer survivors 
has the potential to significantly enhance quality of life and overall well-being in this population. It is cost-effective and feasible option for all including LMICs and future larger trials are warranted.