Exercise prehabilitation in colorectal cancer

Background and study aims
Colorectal (bowel) cancer is the fourth most common cancer in the UK with over 40,000 cases diagnosed each year. About two in three people who are diagnosed with colorectal cancer have surgery as part of their treatment. Cancer treatment is good at extending the length of a person’s life, but many people are left more limited in their physical function when compared with similar people who have not had cancer or surgery. One way to try and combat this is with ‘prehabilitation’, which is the improvement of background levels of fitness amongst other things, before surgery. Given this, researchers want to study the effects of exercise on people before surgery for colorectal cancer and to work towards understanding why exercise can affect fitness levels amongst other things.
Who can participate?
Patients aged 18 years or older with colorectal cancer and a plan for curative surgery
What does the study involve?
Participants are randomly allocated to Prehabilitation with High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) only or to Prehabilitation with High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) and Resistance Exercise Training (RET) (ReHIIT). The study involves exercising for 8-12 sessions before surgery and three assessment sessions where participants will undergo tests of their physical function, blood and urine samples, an x-ray and ultrasound scan, testing of their nerves and muscles (EMG), a thigh biopsy, some questionnaires, and lung tests. In addition, they will also take saliva samples each week, wear a small device to track their function and record what they eat at four points during the study. The study takes about 10 weeks.