Identification of Research Priorities in Exercise Oncology: A Consensus Study

Abstract

The growth of research in the field of exercise oncology has resulted in a large evidence base for the role of physical activity in preventing and managing cancer outcomes. Nonetheless, there remain many unanswered questions across the multidisciplinary field. This study aimed to determine the priority research questions within exercise oncology using a systematic consensus method. Forty-seven exercise oncology experts engaged in the five-step process of the Nominal Group Technique to generate a list of research questions in small groups and rank the 10 most important. One hundred questions resulted from the process and fifteen received total scores (sum of ranks) of at least 50 from a maximum score of 470. The highest ranked question (score of 125) related to the identification of functional markers of recovery. The next five questions concerned minimum exercise parameters, health professional education, translation of behavioural interventions, effects of exercise on the tumour microenvironment and development of in vitro models to study the impact of exercise on cancer cell growth and metastasis. The study has demonstrated the importance of future research across all disciplinary areas of exercise oncology and identified the priority questions to which resources might be directed.

Evaluation of a city-wide physical activity pathway for people affected by cancer: the Active Everyday service

“…Clinical and professional bodies continue to advocate for integrating exercise within clinical care, yet few studies have translated the evidence into practice [ 24 ]. This article presents the design, implementation, and results of AE; a person-centred physical activity service for all PABC that connected clinical care with community physical activity support.…”

“…Translating the current evidence for physical activity for PABC into practice is a multifactorial problem [ 23 ], which includes exercise assessment, advice, referral, and engagement. Translation of physical activity behaviour change interventions into real-world settings is the third-highest ranked research priority in exercise oncology [ 24 ]. As such, the primary goal of this article is to present an evaluation of a city-wide physical activity pathway in Sheffield, UK (the Active Everyday project).…”