Abstract: Objective To systematically review the exerciseexperience of patients with breast cancer. Methods We searched databases of PubMed, The Cochrane Library, EMbase, Web of Science, CINAHL, Scopus, WanFang, CNKI, and CBM from the inception to September 1,2020, to collect qualitative studies on exercise experience of breast cancerpatients. The JBI Critical Appraisal Tool for qualitative studies in Australia was used to evaluate the quality of studies. The results were synthesized by integrating methods. Results A total of 40 findings were extracted from10 qualified studies. The 40 findings were integrated into 7 new categories and finally 3 synthesized results were summarized: (1) perceived benefit of exercise:source of strength and support, and health promotion; (2) perceived motivation for exercises: internalincentive and external support; (3) perceived barriers for exercise: physical factors, psychological factors and environment factors. Conclusion Patients highlight the importance and benefits of exercise. However, maintaining physically active is sometimes challenging. Health care professionals need to understand the exercise experience of breast cancer patients and explore their attitude toward, cognition of and demand for exercise, so as to develop effective exercise intervention strategies for breast cancer patients.

Key words: breast cancer, exercise, experience, qualitative study, Meta-synthesis