Reducing Arm Morbidity in Pre- and Post-breast Cancer Surgery

September 3, 2010 updated by: McGill University

Reducing Arm Morbidity Through Physical Therapy Provided Pre- and Post-breast Cancer Surgery

The overall aim of this pilot study is to explore the feasibility of a randomized trial to test the effectiveness of physical therapy, provided both pre- and post-surgery, on reducing arm morbidity and increasing health-related quality of life (HRQL) post-surgery.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Breast cancer surgery is one of the most frightening health events a woman can experience. Not only is there fear of cancer and mortality, but also fear of disfigurement and disability arising from the surgery and from the subsequent chemotherapy and radiotherapy. The pre-operative period is a time of great anxiety and in the post-operative period this anxiety is compounded by pain and discomfort associated with the breast and axillary wounds. Lack of knowledge about follow-up treatment leads to fear and anxiety post-surgery. All women experience loss of mobility and function of the arm on the operative side for a period of time ranging from days to months to years. This arm morbidity interferes with participation in usual activities, is an additional source of stress compounding the psychological distress associated with the cancer itself, and has a negative impact on the quality of life.

The post-operative period may not be the most opportune time to introduce interventions to accelerate recovery. Many women will be concerned about perturbing the healing process and may be depressed and anxious as they await extra treatment for the tumor. The pre-operative period may be a more emotionally salient time to intervene in the factors that contribute to recovery.

The process of enhancing functional capacity of the individual to enable him or her to withstand stressors is termed "prehabilitation". This project deals with the effectiveness of prehabilitation with or without post-operative exercise to reduce arm morbidity and increase quality of life following breast cancer surgery.

The overall aim is to explore the feasibility of a randomized trial to test the effectiveness of physical therapy, provided both pre- and post-surgery, on reducing arm morbidity and increasing health-related quality of life (HRQL) post-surgery. The specific objectives of this pilot project are to:

  1. estimate recruitment rates for such a trial;
  2. estimate compliance to the protocols;
  3. pilot the randomization procedures;
  4. identify sub-groups of the population with different needs for pre-and post-surgical physical therapy;
  5. estimate effect sizes to be used for sample size calculations for the main project and for budget justification.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

50

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • Canada
    • Quebec
      • Montreal, Quebec, Canada, H3A 1A1
        • Division of Clinical Epidemiology

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

Female

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Women
  • Diagnosed with breast cancer
  • Able to complete questionnaires

Exclusion Criteria:

  • none

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Prevention
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Factorial Assignment
  • Masking: Single

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: 1
Prehabilitation (exercises pre surgery)
Other: Prehabilitation
Exercise class pre-surgery
Active Comparator: 2
Usual care as provided by the institution
Other: Usual care
Exercise booklet, physiotherapy if needed

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
participation restriction
Time Frame: 2 years
2 years

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

McGill University

Collaborators

Canadian Breast Cancer Research Alliance

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Nancy Mayo, PhD, James McGill Professor, Department of Medicine, School of Physical and Occupational Therapy, McGill University

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

August 1, 2004

Primary Completion (Actual)

July 1, 2009

Study Completion (Actual)

December 1, 2009

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

September 9, 2005

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 9, 2005

First Posted (Estimate)

September 15, 2005

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

September 6, 2010

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 3, 2010

Last Verified

May 1, 2008

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • SDR-05-017

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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