Home-Combo: an Online Home-based Combined Exercise Intervention for Women With Breast Cancer

Background. Chemotherapy drugs carry many side effects that may hinder the functional performance of women with breast cancer (BC). Chemoresistance can lead to treatment failure. A relative dose intensity of chemotherapy \<85% is associated with a worse diagnosis and lower treatment efficacy. Exercise may modulate treatment response through its effects on the tumor microenvironment and treatment tolerability. The need for a pleasant and sustainable exercise practice is important, considering the psychological and physiological stress that accompanies women with a BC diagnosis during treatment. Studies investigating the effects of exercise interventions on chemotherapy completion rates are needed. Background. Chemotherapy drugs carry many side effects that may hinder the functional performance of women with breast cancer (BC). Chemoresistance can lead to treatment failure. A relative dose intensity of chemotherapy \<85% is associated with a worse diagnosis and lower treatment efficacy. Exercise may modulate treatment response through its effects on the tumor microenvironment and treatment tolerability. The need for a pleasant and sustainable exercise practice is important, considering the psychological and physiological stress that accompanies women with a BC diagnosis during treatment. Studies investigating the effects of exercise interventions on chemotherapy completion rates are needed. Purpose. This study will be a 2-arm pragmatic randomized controlled trial, Home-Combo, which will target Portuguese women with a breast cancer diagnosis undergoing either neo-adjuvant or adjuvant chemotherapy. The Home-Combo study primarily aims to investigate the effects of a structured, supervised, home-based combined exercise intervention with self-selected intensity, conducted across the chemotherapy treatment period, on the chemotherapy completion rates of women with BC. Secondly, this study intends to analyze the impact of this intervention on functional performance, body composition, PA levels, and quality of life. A 3-month follow-up will be performed to investigate short-term outcomes and active lifestyle sustainability post-intervention. Methods. A 2-arm randomized controlled trial will be implemented in a real-world exercise setting to compare an online structured and supervised group aerobic and strength exercise intervention with an active control group during chemotherapy treatments. The study recruitment goal is 98 women with a BC diagnosis stage I-III who are scheduled to have neoadjuvant or adjuvant chemotherapy. Outcome measures will be obtained at baseline, mid-treatment (≈3 months), post-intervention (≈6 months), and 3-month follow-up. A mediation analysis will also be conducted. Hypothesis 1: Women in the intervention will have a better completion rate than those in the control group. Hypothesis 2: Women in the intervention will present better functional performance, body composition, PA levels, and quality of life than the control group. Hypothesis 3: In the post-intervention period, women in the intervention group will maintain a more physically active lifestyle than women in the control group.

Sex

Female

Minimum age

18 Years

Inclusion Criteria:

* Breast cancer stage I-III diagnosis
* Scheduled to receive neoadjuvant or adjuvant chemotherapy
* Have acess to a computer

Exclusion Criteria:

* Medical conterindication to perform exercise or physical assessments due to concomitant comorbidity
* Non-controlled health conditions or diseases
* Psychological illness
* Currently enrolled in a structured exercise program
* Unable to complete the entire program (e.g., due to scheduled surgery or personal commitments)
* Pregnancy
* Worsening of clinical condition during intervention

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