PEACH Trial: Prescribed Exercise After Chemotherapy
Condition: Cancer
Study type: Interventional
Phase: Phase 3

Summary: 
      Many cancer survivors suffer symptoms such as fatigue and dyspnea which may persist for years
      or months after their chemotherapy has finished. Despite the known benefits of exercise and
      its potential to address many of the symptoms after cancer, the type of practical exercise
      programme which best suits this population is not known.

      Many exercise programmes performed in cancer survivors take place over many weeks or months
      and include people with specific types of cancer. Such programmes may therefore not be
      suitable for the majority of cancer survivors and would pose serious practical difficulties
      with high drop-out rates and expensive resource consumption if they were extended into
      clinical practice.

      We propose to run an 8-week exercise intervention in a mixed cancer population.

      Hypothesis: A brief, individually tailored 8-week intervention will increase fitness and
      improve other physical symptoms in a mixed cancer survivor population after chemotherapy.
    

Detailed description: 
      Background: Many cancer survivors suffer a range of physical and psychological symptoms with
      may persist for years or months after treatment finishes. Despite the known benefits of
      exercise and its potential to address many of these adverse effects of treatment, the role of
      exercise as well as its optimum duration, frequency, and intensity in this population has yet
      to be fully elucidated. Many cancer rehabilitation programmes presented in the literature are
      very long, have tight eligibility criteria and are not likely to be practical in the majority
      of cancer survivors. We plan to investigate a novel brief 8-week intervention which aims to
      increase physical fitness, and address other physical symptoms in a heterogeneous cancer
      survivor population.

      Methods/design: Approximately 60 cancer survivors 2-6 months after completion of
      chemotherapy, usually adjuvant, with curative intent will be recruited through oncology
      clinics in a single institution and randomised to usual care or an exercise intervention. The
      exercise intervention consists of two specifically tailored, supervised, moderate intensity
      aerobic exercise sessions per week for 8 weeks. All participants will be assessed at baseline
      (0 weeks), post intervention (8 weeks), and at 3-month follow-up. The primary outcome measure
      is fitness, and secondary patient-related outcome measures include fatigue, quality of life,
      and morphological outcomes. A further secondary outcome is process evaluation including
      adherence to and compliance with the exercise program.

      Discussion: This study will provide valuable information about the physical outcomes of this
      8-week supervised aerobic programme. Additional process information and economic evaluation
      will inform the feasibility of implementing this program in a heterogeneous population after
      chemotherapy treatment with curative intent.
    

Intervention name(s): Exercise programme
Intervention type(s): Behavioral
Intervention description(s): Moderate intensity exercise
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: Single (Outcomes Assessor)
Primary purpose: Treatment
Keywords: Cancer; Exercise; Physical Activity; Randomized controlled trial