Multimodal Prehabilitation Program That Combines Physical Exercise, Psychological Intervention and Nutritional Support to Improve the Response to Neoadjuvant Chemoterhapy in Early Breast Cancer Patients (DIANA)

January 14, 2026 updated by: Helena Castillo, Hospital Clinic of Barcelona

Multimodal Intervention During Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy in Patients With Early-breast Cancer as a Strategy to Improve Treatment Response: DIANA Trial (Multimodal Prehabilitation: DIet, ANxiety Control Psychotherapy, Physical Activity)

The aim of this clinical trial is to evaluate whether following a multimodal prehabilitation program including physical exercise, nutritional support and psychological intervention during neoadjuvant chemotherapy in breast cancer patients could improve the pathological response to chemotherapy.

214 women with non-metastatic breast cancer with indication of chemotherapy before surgery will be eligible to participate. Patients will be randomly assigned to either the intervention group or the control group.

  • Patients assigned to the intervention group (107 women) will undergo a directed multimodal prehabilitation program during the chemotherapy (4-6 months), including structured physical exercise, psychological intervention and nutritional guidance.
  • Patients assigned to the control group (107 women) will undergo standard clinical management for their disease without multimodal prehabilitation.

The response to chemotherapy between the two groups will be evaluated and compared. It is expected that multimodal prehabilitation will increase the response to chemotherapy and will improve the postoperative recovery of patients and their quality of life, as well as reducing the number of complications from surgery and chemotherapy treatment. Changes in the tumor microenvironment are also expected after prehabilitation.

Study Overview

Detailed Description

Breast cancer (BC) is the most common neoplasm worldwide and the leading cause of death among women. Neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) is currently one of the main therapeutic pillars. The pathological response after NACT has demonstrated prognostic value in BC, being also a determinant factor for posterior treatments. In recent years, research has increasingly focused on the impact of lifestyle changes on BC, such as physical exercise, diet, and psychological interventions. These actions are part of what is known as prehabilitation, defined as the set of strategies applied prior to surgery to optimize the physical and emotional condition of patients before the surgical intervention.

The individual application of these strategies in BC patients has shown improved oncological outcomes, with positive effects on quality of life and tolerance to medical treatments. Furthermore, evidence suggests that these interventions may favorably modulate the tumor microenvironment by reducing intratumoral hypoxia, enhancing antitumor immune responses, and modulating systemic pro-inflammatory states.

Despite the demonstrated benefits of prehabilitation in multiple medical and surgical fields, there is limited evidence regarding its impact on systemic treatment outcomes in BC patients. There is also a lack of solid evidence evaluating the role of multimodal prehabilitation (combining different prehabilitation strategies) in BC, as well as its effect on treatment response and tolerance.

The current study proposes the application of a multimodal prehabilitation program during the NACT window, based on structured physical exercise, psychological therapy (mindfulness or anxiety-control techniques), and nutritional counseling in BC patients, as a strategy to enhance treatment response through changes in the tumor microenvironment. Additionally, it will be assessed whether the intervention improves treatment tolerance and postoperative recovery, among others.

The study consists of a randomized, single-blind, controlled clinical trial with two parallel groups that will include 214 women diagnosed with non-metastatic breast cancer, eligible for NACT, and awaiting surgery at our center.

Participants will be randomized into two parallel groups in a 1:1 ratio (control and intervention group, including 107 women each). A basal evaluation will be performed in all patients before starting NACT, reporting their physical, nutritional and psychological status, as well as a tumor microenvironment study in the diagnostic biopsy sample. All patients will undergo 4-6 months of NACT, the control group with standard clinical management and the intervention group following the multimodal prehabilitation program. After NACT, the physical, nutritional and psychological status of all patients will be re-evaluated. Patients will undergo surgery according to their disease and the pathological response to the treatment will be assessed.

The primary outcome will be the pathological response after NACT in both groups, assessed through the Residual Cancer Burden (RCB) index. Secondary outcomes will include NACT tolerance, quality of life, psychological and nutritional status, postoperative recovery, tumor microenvironment changes and patients' physical condition.

The group of BC patients undergoing the multimodal prehabilitation program during NACT is expected to achieve better response rates (RCB 0 and I) than the control group. Furthermore, the multimodal intervention is anticipated to promote quantitative and/or qualitative changes in the tumor microenvironment, improve NACT tolerance, enhance quality of life, and optimize postoperative recovery and the patients' physical, psychological, and nutritional status.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

214

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 Contact

Study Contact Backup

  • Name: Eduard Mension Coll, MD, PhD
  • Phone Number: +34 626 20 71 71
  • Email: mension@clinic.cat

Study Locations

      • Barcelona, Spain
        • Recruiting
        • Hospital Clínic de Barcelona
        • Contact:

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

  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Histologically confirmed diagnosis of non-metastatic breast cancer: stages cT1-T4, cN0-N3, M0, and candidates for neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC).
  • Age ≥ 18 years.
  • Signed informed consent.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Contraindication or physical inability to perform moderate-to-high intensity physical exercise.
  • Pregnant or breastfeeding patients.
  • Presence of other active synchronous neoplasms.
  • Metastatic breast cancer (stage IV).
  • Patients already engaging in regular physical exercise: more than 150 minutes of moderate or intense aerobic exercise per week.
  • Male breast cancer patients.
  • Personal history of a previous malignancy treated with chemotherapy.
  • Severe or poorly controlled psychiatric illness (including uncontrolled active substance abuse).

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: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Single

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
No Intervention: Control
107 women that will follow the standard of care. Patients in the control group will receive proper information and recommendations about lifestyle modifications according to the most recent oncological guidelines. The benefits of physical exercise, a healthy diet and psychological support will be exposed, but such interventions will not be provided in our centre.
Experimental: Prehabilitation
107 women that will follow the multimodal prehabilitation program during NACT (physical exercise, psychological intervention, nutritional support).
Multimodal prehabilitation program during NACT (4-6 months) that will combine: 1) Physical exercise: cardiovascular and strength exercises designed by specialized physiotherapists, structured in 1-hour sessions twice a week. The characteristics of the activity will be adapted to the treatment phase and the physical condition of each woman. 2) Psychological therapies: standardized mindfullness practice by a specialized psychologist. As an alternative, patients who refuse mindfullness could receive psychological sessions on stress and anxiety management. 3) Nutritional counseling: periodic sessions with a specialized nutritionist providing dietary recommendations and nutritional advice adapted to the disease and condition of the patients.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Residual Cancer Burden Index (RCB)
Time Frame: From enrollment (baseline, day 1) until the end of treatment at 4-6 months (preoperative).

The main variable of the trial is the RCB index score, obtained from the histological specimen of the oncological surgery performed after NAC. The four levels of response of the RCB index (RCB 0, I, II and III) will be divided into a favorable profile of response (fRCB), that will include cathegories RCB 0 and I, and an unfavorable response profile (uRCB), including RCB II and III.

It is estimated that the average rate of a favorable RCB (fRCB) score, including RCB 0 and RCB I, will be approximately 40% in the control arm. Parallelly, the expected rates of unfavorable RCB (uRCB) scores, including RCB II and RCB III, are 60%. The objective is to improve the response rates by 20% in the intervention group, with 60% of fRCB scores and 40% of uRCB scores in this group.

From enrollment (baseline, day 1) until the end of treatment at 4-6 months (preoperative).

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Tumor microenvironment (Gene expression analyses)
Time Frame: From enrollment (baseline, day 1) until the end of treatment at 4-6 months (postoperative).
Formalin fixed-paraffin embedded tumor tissue blocks will be analyzed by hematoxylin and eosin staining, to check tumor surface area. Samples with ≥20% of tumor cells will be selected for RNA extraction. The High Pure FFPET RNA Isolation Kit (Roche) will purify RNA from FFPE tumor samples. A minimum of ∼100 ng of total RNA will be used to measure the expression of 185 breast cancer-related and immune-related genes including the genes of PAM50 and HER2DX and 7 housekeeping genes using the nCounter platform (Nanostring Technologies, Seattle, USA). The gene expression for each sample will be independently normalized to the geometric mean of housekeeping genes. The 14-gene immunoglobulin (IGG) signature (i.e., CD27, CD79A, HLA-C, IGJ, IGKC, IGL, IGLV3-25, IL2RG, CXCL8, LAX1, NTN3, PIM2, POU2AF1 and TNFRSF17) will be calculated.
From enrollment (baseline, day 1) until the end of treatment at 4-6 months (postoperative).
Tumor staging
Time Frame: At diagnosis or day 1 (clinical TNM or cTNM) and after surgery (pathological TNM or pTNM)
Registered according to the TNM system by the. American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) 8th edition
At diagnosis or day 1 (clinical TNM or cTNM) and after surgery (pathological TNM or pTNM)
Tumor cellularity after NACT
Time Frame: After the surgery (after NACT, 4-6 months from day 1)
Reported as the percentage (%) of neoplastic cells in the surgical specimen.
After the surgery (after NACT, 4-6 months from day 1)
Assessment of vascular density in peritumoral areas
Time Frame: At enrollment (baseline, day 1) and at the end of treatment at 4-6 months (postoperative).

The assessment will involve evaluating microvascular density through immunohistochemical staining for CD31 on tumor or tumor bed sections. This evaluation follows a two-step process:

  1. Hotspot Area Selection: Identification of hotspot areas under a light microscope at 4x magnification.
  2. Manual Counting: Manual counting of all vascular lumens in the selected field at 20x magnification.

This method ensures precise quantification of vascular density in both the peritumoral and tumor bed regions.

At enrollment (baseline, day 1) and at the end of treatment at 4-6 months (postoperative).
Adverse effects of neoadjuvant chemotherapy
Time Frame: After the treatment (4-6 months later, presurgical).
They will be recorded by the research team and classified according to the CTCAE (Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events) version 5.0. Data will be collected at the end of NAC in both groups.
After the treatment (4-6 months later, presurgical).
Chemotherapy completion rate
Time Frame: At the end of the treatment (4-6 months after day 1, preoperative)
The proportion of patients who received the full course of chemotherapy with the corresponding dose. This will be evaluated before surgery in both groups.
At the end of the treatment (4-6 months after day 1, preoperative)
Hospitalization during NACT
Time Frame: At the end of the treatment (4-6 months after day 1, preoperative)
Need for hospitalization during neoadjuvant chemotherapy: the number of hospital admissions prior to surgery will be recorded as an absolute count.
At the end of the treatment (4-6 months after day 1, preoperative)
Post-surgical hospitalization
Time Frame: From the surgery (5-7 months after day 1) until 30 days after the operation.
Length of hospitalization after oncological surgery: Measured in days.
From the surgery (5-7 months after day 1) until 30 days after the operation.
Pain control after oncological surgery
Time Frame: Since the surgery is done (5-7 months from day 1) until hospital discharge.
Pain will be assessed using the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) during the hospital stay. The scale ranges from 0 to 10, with higher scores indicating greater pain severity.
Since the surgery is done (5-7 months from day 1) until hospital discharge.
Post-operative complications
Time Frame: From the surgery (5-7 months from day 1) until 30 days after.

These will be classified based on timing as immediate postoperative complications (during the procedure or within 24 hours), early complications (up to 7 days post-surgery), and late postoperative complications (from 7 to 30 days post-surgery). Severity will be recorded using the Clavien-Dindo scale.

Emergency visits and readmissions will also be reported: The absolute number, reasons, and length of hospital stay will be recorded up to 30 days post-surgery.

From the surgery (5-7 months from day 1) until 30 days after.
Change in oxygen consumption (VO2) from baseline to post-neoadjuvant therapy
Time Frame: Before the chemotherapy (baseline or day 1) and after the treatment (4-6 months later, presurgical).
Through a Cardiopulmonary Exercise Testing (CPET), the oxygen consumption will be measured in all patients (ml/kg/min) before and after finishing neoadjuvant chemotherapy.
Before the chemotherapy (baseline or day 1) and after the treatment (4-6 months later, presurgical).
Mindfulness status
Time Frame: Before the chemotherapy (baseline or day 1), after the treatment (4-6 months later, presurgical), and 1 month after surgery.
Assessed through the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ). Score 39 - 195 points. A higher score indicates a greater level of mindfulness.
Before the chemotherapy (baseline or day 1), after the treatment (4-6 months later, presurgical), and 1 month after surgery.
Prehabilitation program adherence
Time Frame: After the prehabilitation program (4-6 months from day 1, presurgical).
Measured by the number of sessions attended relative to the scheduled sessions.
After the prehabilitation program (4-6 months from day 1, presurgical).
Weight
Time Frame: Before the chemotherapy (baseline or day 1), after the treatment (4-6 months later, presurgical), and 1 year after surgery.
Weight in kilograms will be registered before and after NACT
Before the chemotherapy (baseline or day 1), after the treatment (4-6 months later, presurgical), and 1 year after surgery.
Body Mass Index
Time Frame: Before the chemotherapy (baseline or day 1), after the treatment (4-6 months later, presurgical), and 1 year after surgery.
Body mass index (BMI) will be measured before and after chemotherapy (kg/m2)
Before the chemotherapy (baseline or day 1), after the treatment (4-6 months later, presurgical), and 1 year after surgery.
Physical activity level
Time Frame: Before the chemotherapy (baseline or day 1), after the treatment (4-6 months later, presurgical) and 1 year after the surgery.
The international questionnaire of Physical Activity (IPAQ) will be used to register the level of physical activity of the subjects. Minimum score: 0 MET-min/week. Maximum score: no formal upper limit (normally 20,000 MET-min/week). According to the punctuation, the level of physical activity can be classified into low (< 600 MET-min/week), moderate (≥ 600 and < 3,000 MET-min/week) or high (≥ 3,000 MET-min/week).
Before the chemotherapy (baseline or day 1), after the treatment (4-6 months later, presurgical) and 1 year after the surgery.
Strength
Time Frame: Before the chemotherapy (baseline or day 1), after the treatment (4-6 months later, presurgical) and 1 year after the surgery.
Assessed through the hand grip strength test, using a hand-held dynamometer (measured in kilograms).
Before the chemotherapy (baseline or day 1), after the treatment (4-6 months later, presurgical) and 1 year after the surgery.
Estimated maximal oxygen uptake (VO2 max)
Time Frame: Before the chemotherapy (baseline or day 1), after the treatment (4-6 months later, presurgical) and 1 year after the surgery.
To evaluate the general physical status of patients (as an estimate of VO₂), the 30-Second Sit-to-Stand Test will be performed and recorded as an absolute number.
Before the chemotherapy (baseline or day 1), after the treatment (4-6 months later, presurgical) and 1 year after the surgery.
Patient-perceived quality of life
Time Frame: Before the chemotherapy (baseline or day 1), after the treatment (4-6 months later, presurgical), 1 month after surgery and 1 year after the surgery.
Measured using the EORTC QLQ-30 questionnaire (0-100 points: higher scores on functional scales and the global health status scale indicate better functioning and quality of life, while higher scores on symptom scales indicate a higher level of symptoms).
Before the chemotherapy (baseline or day 1), after the treatment (4-6 months later, presurgical), 1 month after surgery and 1 year after the surgery.
Anxiety and Depression levels
Time Frame: Before the chemotherapy (baseline or day 1), after the treatment (4-6 months later, presurgical), 1 month after surgery and 1 year after the surgery.
Assessed using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), which score ranges from 0 to 21 points. Higher scores indicate more severe symptoms of anxiety or depression: 0-7: Normal or no significant anxiety/depression, 8-10: Mild anxiety/depression, 11-15: Moderate anxiety/depression, 16-21: Severe anxiety/depression.
Before the chemotherapy (baseline or day 1), after the treatment (4-6 months later, presurgical), 1 month after surgery and 1 year after the surgery.
Nutritional status
Time Frame: Before the chemotherapy (baseline or day 1), after the treatment (4-6 months later, presurgical), and 1 year after the surgery.
Complete blood analysis: Including liver and renal profile, blood count, ionogram, albumin, prealbumin, glucose, interleukin-6 and IGF-1.
Before the chemotherapy (baseline or day 1), after the treatment (4-6 months later, presurgical), and 1 year after the surgery.
Adherence to mediterranean diet
Time Frame: Before the chemotherapy (baseline or day 1), after the treatment (4-6 months later, presurgical), 1 month after surgery and 1 year after the surgery.
Validated Questionnaire of Mediterranean Diet Adherence (MEDAS-14). Scoring: 0-14 points. Higher scores mean higher adherence to Mediterranean diet, being a score equal or superior to 9 considered a good adherence to such diet.
Before the chemotherapy (baseline or day 1), after the treatment (4-6 months later, presurgical), 1 month after surgery and 1 year after the surgery.
Body image perception
Time Frame: 1 year after the surgery
Assessment of how patients perceive and feel about their physical appearance after the finalization of breast cancer treatments through the validated questionnaire Body Image Scale Questionnaire (BIS).
1 year after the surgery

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Investigators

  • Study Director: Berta Díaz-Feijoo, MD, PhD, Hospital Clinic of Barcelona
  • Study Director: Eduard Mension Coll, MD, PhD, Hospital Clinic of Barcelona

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)

January 14, 2025

Primary Completion (Estimated)

January 1, 2028

Study Completion (Estimated)

March 1, 2028

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

July 6, 2025

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

August 4, 2025

First Posted (Actual)

August 6, 2025

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

January 15, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 14, 2026

Last Verified

January 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

IPD Plan Description

Individual participant data will not be shared due to privacy concerns and ethical restrictions related to the confidentiality of patient information. The informed consent obtained from participants does not include provisions for data sharing beyond the primary research team.

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.

No

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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