Preoperative HIIT in Elderly Cancer Patients (eHIITCa)

University of Nottingham

Status: Completed

Conditions: Cancer

Treatments: Other: High intensity interval training (HIIT)

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT02671617

eHIITCa

Details and patient eligibility

About

This randomized control trial will determine the effect of short term high intensity interval training (HIIT) on physical fitness, in an elderly patient group with active cancer, prior to surgical resection.

Half of the recruited patients will act as a control group and the other half will undergo a HIIT protocol.

Full description

High intensity interval training (HIIT) has been shown to achieve similar and in some studies better improvements in aerobic fitness versus more traditional endurance based exercise over the same time period. HIIT has also been shown to produce these improvements over a shorter timescale than other methods, in the region of 2-6 weeks. One widely reported barrier to exercise is time availability, HIIT training may be a favorable option to increase fitness as the total time spent exercising is significantly less than other methods. HIIT induces improvements in cardiovascular parameters in healthy elderly subjects, investigators aim to investigate whether these improvements can be matched in patients with cancer and further elucidate the mechanisms behind improvements seen with this type of training.

Enrollment: 40 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 65+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Aged over 65 years (no upper age limit).
• Histologically proven, radiologically or direct visualisation leading to high clinical suspicion of cancer.
• Sufficient mobility to be able to exercise on a static exercise bike.
• Ability to give informed consent.
• Ability to travel to RDH to complete the HIIT sessions (may also rely upon dependents/relatives to provide transport).

Exclusion criteria

• Adjuvant systemic chemotherapy / radiotherapy treatment for this cancer. Participants with a significant past medical history of:
• Myocardial infarction (within last 6 months)
• Unstable Angina
• Heart failure (NYHA class III/IV)
• Uncontrolled Hypertension (BP>160/100)
• Previous stroke/TIA
• Severe respiratory disease inc. known pulmonary hypertension(>25 mmHg), Forced Expiratory Volume in 1 second <1.5l.
• Brittle asthma / exercise induced asthma
• Known cerebral aneurysm.
• Inclusion in a recent (within 3 months) study which included any form of exercise, taking a drug or ionising radiation.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Basic Science

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

---

40 participants in 2 patient groups

Control

No Intervention group

Description:

Control: This group of patients will receive 'current best practice' as per UK NHS recommendations for their specific cancer management prior to surgery.

High intensity interval training

Experimental group

Description:

Exercise: Participants in this group will attend 3-4 times per week to complete HIIT training during the period from diagnosis to surgery. High intensity interval training (HIIT)

Treatment:

Other: High intensity interval training (HIIT)