Exercise and Cancer Survivorship

Prepare ABC Exercise and Cancer Survirorship

Title: SupPoRtive Exercise Programmes for Accelerating REcovery after major ABdominal Cancer surgery (PREPARE-ABC) – A multicentre, 3 arm, parallel randomised controlled trial of standard care alone versus standard care plus supervised hospital based exercise and standard care plus supported home-based exercise pre and post hospital discharge in cancer patients awaiting curative colorectal cancer surgery

Funder: National Institute of Health Research – Health Technology Assessment

DSER staff: Prof John Saxton, Sam Orange

Collaborators: Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, University of East Anglia

Overview: Surgery is one of the main treatments used for bowel (colorectal) cancer. Having an operation to remove part of the bowel is physically demanding. Runners have to train to help their bodies cope with the demands of races. In the same way, doctors think that taking part in an exercise programme might help to train your body to cope with the demands of an operation.

Some people in this trial will take part in an exercise programme before surgery and for about a year after their operation. This might take place in hospital, or at home. Other people in this trial will have routine care and do not take part in an exercise programme.

The trial team will compare the different groups and collect information about: length of hospital stay; any problems after surgery; motivation and levels of physical activity; physical and psychological wellbeing. The aims of this trial are to: see if exercise training can improve your recovery after surgery; find out whether exercise before surgery can improve fitness; find out whether an exercise programme at home or in hospital is better than usual care.

• Trial registration page
• Cancer Research UK webpage 

 

 

Development of a pragmatic lifestyle intervention for women living with and beyond breast cancer

Title: Preparing For Surgery: The Community Prehabilitation and Wellbeing Project (The PREP-WELL Project)

Funder: The Health Foundation – Innovating for Improvement

DSER staff: Dr Garry Tew

Collaborators: Dr Joanne Gray, Northumbria University; South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Public Health (Middlesbrough and Redcar and Cleveland), South Tees Clinical Commissioning Group, University of York

Overview: Adverse lifestyle choices such as sedentary behaviour, poor diet, smoking and hazardous drinking are associated with poor outcomes following surgery, reduced longer-term survival and increased healthcare costs. Through this quality improvement project, we plan to introduce a new, community-based service for patients preoperatively, to capitalise on the ‘teachable moment’ of impending surgery to encourage behaviour modification. We will use validated comprehensive assessments to create supervised patient-centred management plans around lifestyle and education. The aim is to help patients to improve their fitness for surgery and achieve meaningful long-term lifestyle benefits.

• Project website
• University webpage

 

Bourke L, Gilbert S, Hooper R, Steed LA, Joshi M, Catto JW, Saxton JM, Rosario DJ (2014). Lifestyle changes for improving disease-specific quality of life in sedentary men on long-term androgen-deprivation therapy for advanced prostate cancer: a randomised controlled trial. European Urology, 65, 865-872. http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/26200/

Saxton JM, Scott EJ, Daley AJ, Woodroofe MN, Mutrie N, Crank H, Powers HJ, Coleman RE (2014). Effects of an exercise and hypocaloric healthy eating intervention on indices of psychological health status, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis regulation and immune function after early-stage breast cancer: a randomized controlled trial. Breast Cancer Research 16 (2), R39. http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/26194/

Gilbert SE, Tew GA, Fairhurst C, Bourke L, Saxton JM, Winter EM, Rosario DJ (2016). Effects of a lifestyle intervention on endothelial function in men on long-term androgen deprivation therapy for prostate cancer. British Journal of Cancer, 114, 401-408. http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/25522/