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After tumor removal, patients with hormone receptor posi-tive breast cancer often receive adjuvant endocrine treat-ment, with the use of an aromatase inhibitor (AI) being standard of care in the population of postmenopausal women. Common side effects of AI therapy are joint pain, muscle pain, stiffness, fatigue, hot flashes, and weight gain. Arthralgia and/or myalgia can result in lower physical activity and can negatively influence quality of life (QoL). In addition, muscle or joint pain/stiffness are among the main reasons for non-compliance and discontinuation of AI therapy. Because AI therapy is usually administered for 5 and sometimes even 10 years, this is a major clinical challenge.
For breast cancer patients undergoing AI therapy, physical activity can provide potential benefit by reducing mus-cle/joint pain and fatigue and can thus improve QoL. The preventive effect of physical activity on AI side effects, however, remains elusive. In addition, activity programs to reduce AI side effects have so far mostly been rather com-plex. The intervention planned in this study begins at the start of AI therapy, is simple and should therefore be exe-cutable under real life conditions, and has the potential to result in sustained alterations in life style. It consists of a simple, home-based intervention aiming at achieving “brisk recreational outdoor walking (moderate intensity) continu-ously for at least 30 minutes a day, with the aim to take at least 3000 steps, on 5 days per week”.