Development, feasibility and efficacy of a community‐based exercise training program in pediatric cancer survivors

Abstract

Objective: The aim of this study was to develop a 12-week exercise training program (comprising aerobic and strength exercises), and to study the feasibility and efficacy of this exercise program in children who survived acute lymphoblastic leukemia.Sample and methods: A 12-week exercise program was developed and tested for feasibility in nine children who survived cancer.Results: From the 16 eligible children for the intervention, 9 participated, while 4 were able to complete the entire program. Feasibility of the program was scored by five children, two of them reported the program as being too demanding. The participating physiotherapists were satisfied with training methodology and training progress. The efficacy of the program on muscle strength, exercise capacity, functional mobility and fatigue showed no significant differences between pre and post training.Conclusion: In designing a community-based exercise training program, not only the stage of the disease needs to be considered, but more so the age of the children, the variety of exercises, the location of implementation and even more importantly the views and motivation of the parents concerning the execution of an exercise training program. A careful balance between these parameters could lead to a greater adherence and by that, to a better outcome of these programs.

Exercise in adult and pediatric hematological cancer survivors: an intervention review

“…43 In contrast, the intrahospital intervention of San Juan et al 71 showed no effect on QOL. As with other outcomes, limited supervision interventions, such as that of Takken et al 47 , did not show any improvement in fatigue. However, a 20-week aerobic intervention of thrice weekly activity for 30-40 min after treatment reduced fatigue in Hodgkin lymphoma survivors.…”

“…Improvements in muscle strength were evident after the first 8 weeks of training 46 and were maintained after a 20-week detraining period that followed the 16-week training program. 71 Similarly, these physical therapy programs showed no improvements in physical function 69 or functional mobility, 47 but the intrahospital program resulted in a significant improvement in functional mobility. 71 Marchese et al 69 also reported that supervised resistance training with home-based aerobic activity resulted in improved ankle dorsiflexion range of motion, but San Juan et al 71 found no improvement in a 16-week intrahospital combined aerobic and resistance intervention.…”

“…In a similar intervention lasting 12 weeks and involving 45 min of supervised resistance training twice a week followed by twice weekly home-based aerobic activity, Takken et al 47 found no effect on strength in ALL survivors (6-14 years). A small intervention study that included supervised and home-based exercise did not increase strength or flexibility.…”

“…Twelve studies, [42][43][44][45][46][47][48][68][69][70][71][72] including two RCT 42,44 and seven high-quality studies [42][43][44][45][46]69,71 evaluated the effects of physical activity interventions on outcomes in children with pediatric cancer who did not undergo HSCT. One study of high quality 68 evaluated the effects of a single (30 min) exercise bout.…”

“…Liu et al 33 recently performed a systematic review on exercise interventions conducted in hematological cancer patients, including studies published up to September 2007. This area of research is growing considerably and several intervention studies in adult/children survivors of hematological cancer have been recently published in adults [34][35][36][37][38][39][40] and in children 28,[41][42][43][44][45][46][47] that were not included in the review by Liu et al 33 Here, we summarize the intervention data related to all the possible effects of physical activity on adult and pediatric hematological cancer survivors. The information is also detailed extensively in Supplementary Material.…”