Alberta Cancer Exercise Dose in Colorectal Cancer (ACE-Dose-CRC)

Background and Rationale: There is a growing interest in optimizing exercise strategies that can enhance the well-being of individuals living with and beyond cancer (ILWBC). ILWBC frequently experience declines in physical function and QoL during and after treatment, and exercise is one of the few interventions consistently shown to address these challenges. This is of particular importance for individuals living with colorectal cancers, who face fluctuating treatment effects and often struggle to adhere to higher volumes of exercise. Many exercise oncology programs are standardized to reach guidelines levels of 90 or 150 minutes per week (ie, approximately 2-3 sessions/week), and this dose of exercise can impact both attendance (adherence to the sessions) as well as the effectiveness (outcomes, physical, fitness, and psychosocial). Questions thus remain about the most effective, practical, and sustainable "dose" - the frequency of supervised exercise - required to achieve meaningful benefits. In addition, there are questions of sustainability of delivering exercise within cancer care. The dose is thus a critical issue to examine, not only for feasibility of attendance by ILWBC and their anticipated benefits, but also in terms of the economics. There is a paucity of literature examining the economics of exercise dose (cost to deliver based on times per week), as well as a general lack of understanding the health economics (cost to deliver, cost to individuals, savings and impact on the cancer care system).

In Calgary, we have the existing ACE program (now called the Thrive Cancer Exercise Program) which offers participants a 12-week exercise oncology program with 2 classes per week. The original ACE study, baseline characteristics, and initial examination of program impact highlight the value of the ACE exercise intervention for ILWBC. This published work has resulted in streamlining ACE to program implementation and evaluation (HREBA.CC-24-0252). With increased clinical referral, the waitlist to the ongoing Thrive Cancer Exercise Program is growing. There is thus a pragmatic need to establish the optimal dose of exercise, to determine if a sustainable model of one class per week is sufficient to garner potential benefits and meet the growing clinical demand, as well as optimize health care costs and savings.

Research Question and Objectives: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effects of exercise dose in terms of frequencies (one vs. two days per week) in individuals on treatment for colorectal cancer. The impact not only on the individual (potential benefits of exercise), but also in terms of cost will be assessed. In addition, assessments of immunological markers, physical function, QoL, fatigue, symptoms and exercise experience will occur.

Methods: This RCT study is a three-arm, parallel-group trial delivered through the Thrive Cancer Exercise Program at the Arthur J.E. Child Comprehensive Cancer Centre (ACCCC) Stride Centre and Rehab gym. Participants will be randomized (1:1:1) to: 1) Once/week (n = 30); 2) Twice/week for 12 weeks (n = 30); 3) Control-waitlisted to start Thrive Cancer Exercise Program after study completion (n = 30).

ACE-Dose classes will be delivered by Clinical Exercise Physiologists (CEPs) trained to lead high-risk participant classes. The program is a combination of aerobic, resistance, balance, and flexibility exercises delivered in group circuit-style class. The Thrive Cancer Exercise Program current infrastructure and referral process will be used.

Baseline, 12 weeks, 24 weeks and 52 weeks assessments will be done. The following information will be collected: 1) Attendance and Adverse event; 2) Health economics (work and productivity, time and income loss, informal care and daily impact, treatment attendance and travel, out-of-pocket costs, and medications and cost for cancer); 3) Bloodwork conducted by a phlebotomist to assess Immunological markers; 4) Patient-reported outcomes through standardized questionnaires (Quality of life, Fatigue, Symptom management, Exercise Barriers and Facilitators); 5) Physical activity & function assessments (Subjective Physical activity level, Cardiorespiratory fitness, Musculoskeletal fitness, Flexibility, Balance, and Anthropometrics); 6) Garmin data (step counts per day and heart rate) to assess objective Physical Activity Level; 7) Qualitative interview on Program experience.