Personalized Live-remote Exercise Training for Cancer Survivors

Background

Many people with cancer face ongoing problems from their disease and treatments, like fatigue, reduced physical fitness, feeling anxious or down, and neuropathy. While exercise might help with these problems, most studies did not focus on tailoring exercise to address these specific complaints. Exercise programs under supervision (like with a trainer) seem to work better, but barriers for following such sessions are travel distance and time. Therefore, following an exercise program at home with a trainer guiding via video (live-remote) might be a good solution. But, it is unclear how effective this remote exercise program is for cancer patients.

Goal of the study:

The main goal of this study is to assess the effectiveness of a personalized, live-remote exercise intervention for cancer survivors on quality of life and the patients' main complaint. The four complaints tackled in this study are: 1) fatigue, 2) reduced physical functioning, 3) anxiety and/or depressive symptoms, and 4) neuropathy.

Design of the study

In the LION study, 350 cancer patients will be randomly divided into the exercise group or control group. These patients all have at least one of these complaints: 1) fatigue, 2) reduced physical functioning, 3) anxiety and/or depressive symptoms, and/or 4) neuropathy. Patients cannot participate in the study if they are already very active.

The exercise group will start a 12-week exercise program right away, and the other group will wait for 12 weeks before starting. The exercise program consists of three sessions per week. Two sessions per week include aerobic training and strength training. These sessions will be followed by all patients; and aim to improve fitness and strength. The third session specifically aims at improvement of the main complaint, for example fatigue.

Participants will get an app and a fitness tracker to help them stay on track with their exercises. Furthermore, patients get information on the effects of exercise for cancer patients and why exercise is important for specific complaints.

Measurements

The main outcomes of this study are quality of life and the main side-effect of the patient. Other measurements include all kind of patient reported outcomes (like sleep problems and pain), physical fitness, muscle strength, balance, anthropometrics, and (inflammatory) markers in blood.

Conclusion:

This study investigates if personalized exercises done at home, with video guidance, can make cancer survivors feel better and manage their side effects more effectively.