The Preoperative Health & Body Study (PreHab)

November 19, 2025 updated by: Jennifer A. Ligibel, MD, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

This study is designed to look at the changes that occur in women who take part in exercise and Mind-Body programs between breast cancer diagnosis and breast surgery. The investigators will look at changes in stress, anxiety, mood and quality of life, to see if these types of short programs can make women feel better during this time. The investigators are also interested in looking at whether a short exercise or Mind-Body program leads to any changes in markers in breast cancer cells, such as their growth and death rates, or in blood hormones such as insulin, which have been linked to breast cancer development.

Since the investigators do not know if these blood or tumor tests have any relationship to cancer recurrence, the investigators do not plan to share the results of these tests with you or your physician.

Study Overview

Status

Active, not recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

49

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

  • United States
    • Massachusetts
      • Boston, Massachusetts, United States, 02215
        • Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

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

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Newly diagnosed, histologically confirmed stage I-III breast cancer
  • Planning to undergo definitive surgical management with lumpectomy or mastectomy with in the next 8 weeks.
  • Willing and able to participate in the intervention for at least 3 weeks prior to surgery.
  • ECOG performance status of 0 or 1
  • Approval by oncologist or surgeon
  • Willingness to be randomized.
  • English speaking and able to read English

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Concurrent other malignancy or history of other malignancy treated within the past 3 years (other than non-melanoma skin cancer or in situ cervical cancer)
  • Presence of metastatic disease
  • Scheduled to receive any form of neoadjuvant cancer therapy
  • Locally advanced breast cancer not amenable to primary surgery
  • History of prior ipsilateral breast cancer
  • Taking tamoxifen, raloxifene or an aromatase inhibitor at the time of breast cancer diagnosis
  • Absolute contraindications to maximal exercise testing as recommended by the American Thoracic Society
  • Any condition which in the investigator's opinion makes the subject unsuitable for study participation
  • Participating in another clinical study with competing study outcomes
  • Pregnant (i.e., positive beta-HCG) or breast feeding
  • Unable to comply with protocol and/or not available for follow-up assessments
  • Participation in more than 90 minutes a week of moderate-intensity recreational activity (not including activities such as gardening, bowling, golfing with a cart) as assessed by the Leisure Score Index of Godin Leisure- Time Exercise Questionnaire (LSI) (Appendix I) or recent participation (past 6 months) in two or more strength training sessions per week.
  • Diabetes mellitus requiring insulin or oral agents; patients with diet-controlled diabetes will be allowed to participate

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: Supportive Care
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Active Comparator: Exercise Group
Supervised exercise sessions and independent exercise
Behavioral: Exercise
Supervised exercise sessions and independent exercise
Active Comparator: Mind-Body Group
Surgical preparation program
Behavioral: Surgical preparation program
Book, tapes, CD

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Impact of Exercise on Ki-67
Time Frame: 3 years
To explore the impact of exercise upon Ki-67, a tissue-based biomarker associated with breast cancer risk and progression.
3 years
Feasibility of intervention in women with newly diagnosed breast cancer
Time Frame: 3 years
To evaluate the feasibility of conducting a window of opportunity study utilizing exercise and mind-body intervention in women with newly diagnosed breast cancer
3 years

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Impact of exercise on biomarkers
Time Frame: 3 years
To evaluate the impact of a 3-6 week intensive exercise intervention upon concentrations of serum matabolic and inflammatory biomarkers (insulin, glucose, IGF-1, IGFBP's, IL-2, IL-6, CRP, TNFa)
3 years
Impact of exercise on receptors
Time Frame: 3 years
To explore the impact of a 3-6 week exercise intervention upon expression of metabolic, sex steroid and related receptors in malignant breast tissue.
3 years

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Collaborators

Yale University
Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Jennifer A Ligibel, MD, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

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 (Actual)

August 1, 2011

Primary Completion (Actual)

June 1, 2015

Study Completion (Estimated)

September 1, 2026

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

January 19, 2012

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 23, 2012

First Posted (Estimated)

January 24, 2012

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimated)

November 24, 2025

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

November 19, 2025

Last Verified

November 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 11-182

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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