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. 2021 Feb 13;21(1):159.
doi: 10.1186/s12885-021-07872-y.

Feasibility of a multimodal exercise, nutrition, and palliative care intervention in advanced lung cancer

Manuel Ester  1 , S Nicole Culos-Reed  1   2   3 , Amane Abdul-Razzak  4 , Julia T Daun  1 , Delaney Duchek  1 , George Francis  5 , Gwyn Bebb  2 , Jennifer Black  6   7 , Audra Arlain  6 , Chelsia Gillis  8   9 , Lyle Galloway  2   10 , Lauren C Capozzi  11   12
Affiliations

Feasibility of a multimodal exercise, nutrition, and palliative care intervention in advanced lung cancer

Manuel Ester et al. BMC Cancer. .

Abstract

Background: Advanced lung cancer patients face significant physical and psychological burden leading to reduced physical function and quality of life. Separately, physical activity, nutrition, and palliative symptom management interventions have been shown to improve functioning in this population, however no study has combined all three in a multimodal intervention. Therefore, we assessed the feasibility of a multimodal physical activity, nutrition, and palliative symptom management intervention in advanced lung cancer.

Methods: Participants received an individually tailored 12-week intervention featuring in-person group-based exercise classes, at-home physical activity prescription, behaviour change education, and nutrition and palliative care consultations. Patients reported symptom burden, energy, and fatigue before and after each class. At baseline and post-intervention, symptom burden, quality of life, fatigue, physical activity, dietary intake, and physical function were assessed. Post-intervention interviews examined participant perspectives.

Results: The multimodal program was feasible, with 44% (10/23) recruitment, 75% (75/100) class attendance, 89% (8/9) nutrition and palliative consult attendance, and 85% (17/20) assessment completion. Of ten participants, 70% (7/10) completed the post-intervention follow-up. Participants perceived the intervention as feasible and valuable. Physical activity, symptom burden, and quality of life were maintained, while tiredness decreased significantly. Exercise classes prompted acute clinically meaningful reductions in fatigue, tiredness, depression, pain, and increases in energy and well-being.

Conclusion: A multimodal physical activity, nutrition, and palliative symptom management intervention is feasible and shows potential benefits on quality of life that warrant further investigation in a larger cohort trial.

Trial registration: NCT04575831 , Registered 05 October 2020 - Retrospectively registered.

Keywords: Advanced lung cancer; Exercise oncology; Nutrition; Quality of life; Supportive cancer care; Symptom management.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Modified CONSORT flow diagram for the single-arm ENPAL study. legend: Recruitment began in October 2019 and the post-assessments concluded in March 2020. NSCLC = non-small-cell lung cancer. NMS = neuromusculoskeletal
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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