FOcus on Reducing Dose-limiting Toxicities in Colon Cancer With Resistance Exercise Study (FORCE)

Kaiser Permanente

Status: Completed

Conditions: Chemotherapy Effect; Resistance Training; Colon Cancer

Treatments: Behavioral: Resistance training

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT03291951

CN-17-2877

Details and patient eligibility

About

FORCE is a randomized home-based resistance training/strength training (RT) intervention study for Stage II and III colon cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy.

Participants will be 180 newly diagnosed Stage II and III colon cancer patients from Kaiser Permanente of Northern California (KPNC), the Penn State Cancer Institute (PSCI), and the Dana Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI). The intervention will begin within the first weeks of adjuvant chemotherapy and continue exercise through the completion of post-operative chemotherapy. Specifically, the investigators will examine between group differences for RT versus waitlist control for chemotherapy outcomes including dose delays, dose reductions, early stoppage and Grade 3 and 4 toxicities. The investigators will also study changes in muscle mass (MM) and changes in specific inflammatory markers (e.g. CRP, IL-6 and TNF-RII) as potential markers of change in response to RT. To determine effects of change of MM on chemotherapy-specific drug clearance, the investigators will examine the impact body composition changes on the pharmacokinetics (PK) of 5-FU and oxaliplatin, two of the most commonly used drugs for colon cancer.

Enrollment: 183 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Men and women ≥18 years
• Newly diagnosed with histologically confirmed stage II-Ill colon cancer
• Completed curative-intent surgical resection
• Currently prescribed one of the following adjuvant chemotherapy regimens: (IV 5-fluorouracil [5-FU] / leucovorin [LV], capecitabine, FOLFOX [5-FU, LV, oxaliplatin], CAPOX [capecitabine and oxaliplatin]
• Patients must have started chemotherapy or plan to start with receipt of the first exercise visit by 3rd infusion visit. Patients enrolled at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and who are receiving FOLFOX chemotherapy are eligible to enroll in the pharmacokinetics sub-study.
• No planned major surgery anticipated in the intervention period
• Sufficient time to heal from any major surgery to start of intervention, including colostomy reversal (port-a-cath removal excluded)
• Approval by either oncologist or surgeon to participate in trial
• Readiness as determined by the Physical Activity Readiness Questionnaire
• Ability to understand and the willingness to sign a written informed consent document in English
• Willingness to be randomized

Exclusion criteria

• Concurrent actively treated other cancer (except non-melanoma skin cancer, in situ cervical cancer or localized prostate cancer treated with surveillance only)
• Patients with untreated hypertension (>180 mm Hg systolic or >100 mm Hg diastolic) appearing in the patient's medical record in the two weeks prior to screening
• Presence of metastatic disease
• Current strength training >2x week for the past 3 or more months
• Patients enrolled in other clinical trials of weight loss, physical activity or dietary interventions are ineligible.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Supportive Care

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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183 participants in 2 patient groups

Resistance training group

Experimental group

Description:

Participants randomized to the resistance training (RT) group will receive an in-person and telephone-based intervention to promote home-based resistance training. The exercise intervention will begin by the 3rd adjuvant chemotherapy visit and continue exercise through the completion of post-operative chemotherapy. Participants will work with an exercise professional with expertise working with oncology patients.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Resistance training

Usual care group

No Intervention group

Description:

Participants randomized to the usual care (U) group will be instructed to refer to their physician regarding what forms of exercise are safe for them, given their medical history. The U group will be told to continue whatever exercise program they have been undertaking up to enrolling in the study, but not to increase exercise or begin weight-lifting over the period of study participation.