Summary

This study will compare a personalised home-based exercise programme with support from exercise professionals against NHS standard care. People who have finished their primary treatments for early-stage, high-risk lung, breast or bowel cancers, and are at higher risk of their cancer returning, will take part for 2 years. Results from this study will inform the design of a larger scale trial and provide initial evidence of whether more active people have longer, healthier lives without cancer returning than those who are less active after cancer treatments.

The exercise programme will be tailored to baseline measurements (including cancer type) and what (if any) access they have to outside space or exercise equipment. The intervention will include weekly appointments with a qualified professional via video chat or telephone. The programme will include cardio, strength, and flexibility/balance training. Appointments will initially be 3 times per week, then progressively taper to none by the end of 6 months. We will record feasibility outcomes of recruitment rates, intervention delivery and adherence, and adverse events. Clinical measures of disease-free survival will also be collected, alongside patient-reported quality of life, and physical function measures.

What we plan to do

To add to the currently limited evidence-base to see if exercise programmes impact on patient survival outcomes, and to explore the feasibility of a model of personalised exercise programmes that could be implemented as part of patient’s standard cancer care.

To explore if it is possible to complete a larger, multi-centre study of a tailored, home-based exercise programme to look at disease-free survival among early-stage high-risk recurring cancers.

This project is led by the University of Hull