The main aim of this review was to analyse if VO2max in cancer patients increases after completing a TPE programme. The VO2max of the 2558 patients studied presents some variations by gender, intervention and moment of measurement. For male-associated cancer, the increased VO2max ranged between 1.5 and 4.2% after the intervention. With regard to diverse types of tumours related to women, the variable VO2max was measured in the short, medium and long term. The increase in VO2max in female-associated cancer was between 0.3 and 53% in the short term. In the medium term, it was between 0.9 and 16.8%, and in the long term between 2.9 and 12.7%. Types of cancer affecting both genders presented an oscillation between 2 and 3.47% in the short term, 0.5 and 4.1% in the medium term and 1.1 and 1.9% in the long term after intervention with the TPE programme.

Following analysis of four studies of male-associated tumours, three studies [12, 13, 14] show an increase between 1.5 and 4.2% in VO2max consumption in the short term after intervention. In the medium term, the VO2max results for prostate cancer survivors did not show an increase in the experimental group after intervention [15]. In the short term, the optimal frequency to generate an increase in VO2max in men with prostate and testicular cancer is 3 days a week [12, 13, 14], with a duration per session equal to or longer than 35 min and with a minimum duration of the intervention protocol of 12 weeks and, preferably, supervised [12, 13, 14]. Although, analysing the data well, it is also observed that the weekly intervention time should not be less than 105 min, there is a lack of studies that analyse how the intervention time should be distributed. In men with type II diabetes [16] and healthy men [17], participants’ VO2max increases with a frequency of 3 days per week. This increase in healthy men is 4.8% [17], which is better than the increase for oncology patients. Similarly to healthy men [17], high-intensity interval training (HIIT), supervised 3 days per week, achieves a higher increase in VO2max in men with prostate and testicular cancer [13]. This increase is 4.2% [13]. In the short term, all studies analysed [12, 13, 14] present the same frequency (3 days per week), and these studies have a supervised intervention. In the non-oncology population, frequency and supervision of intervention are similar to the studies analysed [16, 17]. In addition, it is important to remark a minimum of training time per week. As to intensity of intervention, the authors believe it should be moderate–high intensity [13, 17]. With high-intensity training, the authors obtain better results both in oncology patients [13] and in healthy subjects [17]. There are discrepancies as to the type of training, as well as the duration of the TPE programme. Future studies will be necessary to identify the most suitable type of training, as well as the most suitable duration of intervention to obtain a significant increase in male-associated VO2max. In the medium term, VO2max is measured by only one analysed study [15], and this measurement does not vary after the intervention. This intervention presents a frequency of 2 days per week, is medium–low intensity and is supervised [15]. The frequency and intensity of this intervention are lower than other interventions studied [12, 13, 14, 16, 17]. These factors may be the cause of the variable (VO2max) not showing an improvement.

The results offered by 15 documents which analyse the change in VO2max in tumours associated with women are very disparate in the three measurement times (short term, medium term and long term). In the short term, the oscillation range of VO2max is between − 0.3 [18] and 53% [19]. Analysed studies have used combined training [20, 21], HIIT [18, 22] and strength training [19]. The best improvement is obtained with strength training (55%) [19]. An intervention with HIIT [18] generates a deterioration in the experimental group, but this deterioration is less than for the control group. Despite these negative results [18], the deterioration suffered by the control group is higher. These results reaffirm that doing TPE is a better option than not doing it in order to maintain cardiorespiratory function. Session time along with programme duration of this intervention [18] is lower than those proposed by other authors [19, 20, 21, 22]. These factors may be the cause of deteriorating Vo2max in participants [18]. The TPE programme that generates a clinically relevant improvement in VO2max in female cancer sufferers is the 24-week programme [22]. The 24-week programme also generates a significant improvement in VO2max in women with fibromyalgia after intervention (17%) [23]. The analysed studies offer a frequency between 2 and 3 days per week [18, 20, 21]. The external literature offers the same frequency in postmenopausal women [6], women with fibromyalgia [23], obese women [24] and postmenopausal women [25]. There is controversy about some important factors in planning TPE programmes (intensity and type training) in women with cancer. This controversy is due to the lack of information regarding intensity, as intensity of intervention is offered by only two [18, 22] to five studies analysed. The controversy is also due to the type of training, as the authors use four different types in their interventions. Future studies will be necessary to identify the type of training, as well as the intensity of training suitable for tumours associated with women.

In the medium term, all interventions show improvements in the VO2max of their participants, oscillating between 0.9 [20] and 16.8% [26]. It would seem that, in the medium term, the type of training that generates major benefits in VO2max is combined training (between 0.9 and 16.8%). This type of training is used by five to seven studies analysed [20, 26, 27, 28, 29]. There is a slight controversy as to the supervision of TPE programme, as the intervention proposed by Mcneil [22] is not supervised, and this intervention shows an increase between 3.2 and 4% in the VO2max of participants. These results are lower than those observed in supervised interventions, which show improvements that oscillate between 0.9 [20] and 16.8% [28]. Furthermore, the improvement in participants in the programme proposed by Mcneil [22] shows a deterioration in the medium term, which may be due to the non-supervision of the intervention, as the rest of the interventions are supervised and their improvement in VO2max is maintained over time [20]. As is the case with female cancer sufferers [25], the supervised intervention for postmenopausal women shows an increase of 6.4% in the VO2max of participants. In obese breast cancer survivors [24], the improvement is more discreet after the supervised intervention, and corporal mass index could be an influential factor in the improvement of VO2max. The frequency of the intervention in postmenopausal [25] women and obese breast cancer survivors [24] is 2–3 days per week. This frequency is proposed by the majority of authors to increase VO2max in cancer sufferers [20, 26, 27, 28, 29]. It appears that frequency and supervision are two influential factors in planning a TPE programme in women with cancer in order to achieve an improvement in their VO2max. In 2019, The American Cancer Society [7] updated a review with more than 13,000 cancer patients, including breast cancer sufferers. This review shows that more than 75% of programmes are supervised by a health professional [7].

In the long term, only 4 of the 15 studies analysed offer measurements [20, 27, 28, 30]. VO2max shows an improvement between 2.9 and 12.7% after intervention with TPE. The type of training most repeated by the authors is combined training [20] [27] [28], although the major increase in VO2max (12.7%) is obtained with aerobic training [30]. In a similar population, the intervention with postmenopausal women [6] is also with aerobic training, which could be the most suitable to increase VO2max in women in the long term. The disparity in the four studies analysed [20, 27, 28, 30] may be due to two factors: time of session and duration of the programme. The authors propose a time of session between 38 [27] and 90 min [20]. The best increase in VO2max is obtained within 45 min of the session [30], and this increase generated an improvement of 12.7% in the vo2max of participants. With regard to the duration of the intervention, the authors propose a duration of between 12 [27] and 48 weeks [30]; a 48-week duration shows an increase of 12.7% [30], followed by an improvement of 8.8% for 16 weeks [28]. It would appear that a major increase in VO2max of the participants requires the intervention to last more than 12 weeks. It would be interesting for future studies to show all influential factors in a TPE programme (frequency, intensity, type of training, time of session and duration of intervention) to achieve a significant increase in VO2max in women in the long term.

In the short term, five studies that analysed males and females with cancer present an increase in VO2max between − 0.75 [9] and 14% [