Yoga Intervention for Reducing Fatigue in Cancer Patients (Carfi)

Wuerzburg University Hospital

Status: Completed

Conditions: Cancer; Fatigue

Treatments: Behavioral: Yoga therapy

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT04433793

DRKS00016034

Details and patient eligibility

About

Cancer patients suffer from severe exhaustion and tiredness that is disproportionate to previous efforts and that cannot be completely reduced by sleep. The effectiveness of an 8 week yoga therapy (one hour a week) in patients with different cancer types on self-reported fatigue will be tested.

Full description

Almost 90% of cancer patients suffer from symptoms of fatigue during treatment. Supporting treatments are increasingly used to alleviate the burden of fatigue. This study examines the short-term effects of yoga on fatigue, depression and quality of life. The aim of this study will evaluate the efficacy of yoga for cancer patients with mixed diagnoses reporting fatigue. We will randomly allocate 124 patients to an intervention group (N=62) receiving yoga and a wait-list control group (N=62) receiving yoga 9 weeks later. The yoga therapy will be performed in weekly sessions of 60 minutes each for 8 weeks. The primary outcome will be self-reported fatigue symptoms. Secondary outcome will be depression and Quality of life

Enrollment: 167 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• oncological disease
• planned to undergo cancer related treatment at radiotherapy outpatient clinic or the interdisciplinary oncological therapy outpatient clinic
• reported fatigue symptoms: (intensity ≥4, impairment ≥ 5).

Exclusion criteria

• insufficient knowledge of German
• severe emotional or physical impairment
• more than 50km distance to the university hospital which would require travelling.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Supportive Care

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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167 participants in 2 patient groups

Yoga group

Experimental group

Description:

Patients in the yoga group will receive yoga therapy, one hour every week for eight weeks.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Yoga therapy

Waitlist-control group

No Intervention group

Description:

Patients in the waitlist-control group will receive no intervention at first, but nine weeks after IG, they will get the opportunity to also receive yoga therapy for 8 weeks.