Clinical trial · Interventional
REACT - Resistance Exercise After Cancer Treatment
Comparing the Health Benefits of Digital Home-based Resistance Exercise and Supervised On-site Resistance Exercise in Cancer Patients After Treatment - a 12 Week RCT.
- Source
- ClinicalTrials.gov
- Retrieved
- Sep 8, 2026
- Layer
- normalized (units and labels harmonized; values unchanged)
- Run
- ING-CLINICALTRIALS-20260908-000001
Summary
Brief summary (as posted)
Resistance exercise has been shown to improve several important health variables after cancer and cancer related treatment, but unfortunately the adherence to resistance exercise is low. Typical reported exercise barriers are inconvenient location (e.g. long distance from home), exercise at an unfavorable time of the day, inadequate access to cancer-specific exercise and insufficient recommendations from healthcare providers. Thus, there is need for more research on resistance exercise with an alternative approach in cancer rehabilitation, that potentially can target a broad range of patients, despite their domicile. In Norway, the foundation "Active against cancer" has established exercise locations targeting cancer patients in several hospitals, and today they also offer digital home-based exercise sessions. Therefore, the overall research objectives are to compare the efficacy of a 12 weeks digital, home-based resistance exercise program for cancer patients after treatment on functional, mental, and metabolic health, compared to the same program conducted in a studio under guidance of an instructor. The primary aim is to compare the effect on exercise adherence between digital home-based exercise program and the on-site guided program in cancer patients after treatment. Secondary aims are to compare the two groups on several functional health outcomes, mental health outcomes and metabolic health markers. In addition to the randomized controlled trial, the project includes two non-randomized cohorts - patients undergoing active cancer treatment, and patients living more than 20 km from an exercise location - who follow the digital home-based program and the same test protocol.
Conditions
Conditions (1)
Free-text conditions as registered, with the CancerIndex entity they were reconciled to and the match type.
| Condition (as posted) | Mapped entity | Match | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cancer | Malignant Neoplasm | ALIAS | 0.90 |
Interventions
Interventions (3)
| Intervention | Type | Mapped drug | Match |
|---|---|---|---|
| Digital follow-up | Other | — | UNRESOLVED |
| On-site follow-up | Other | — | UNRESOLVED |
| Resistance exercise | Behavioral | — | UNRESOLVED |
Design
Arms and outcomes
Arms (4)
- type
- EXPERIMENTAL
- label
- Digital home-based resistance exercise
- description
- Participants in the digital group will need an e-mail and access to a pc and/or ipad at home. They will get access to a closed group on a digital platform, for participants in the project only. They will be asked to perform two pre-recorded resistance exercise sessions each week, for 12 weeks. Each session last for 40 minutes, and include 10 minutes of warm-up (dynamic mobility and low impact), 25 minutes of resistance exercises (8-15 repetitions x 2-4 sets), and 5 minutes of cool-down and stretching. A total of 24 exercises will be performed over the period of 12 weeks.
- interventionNames
- Other: Digital follow-up
- Behavioral: Resistance exercise
- type
- EXPERIMENTAL
- label
- On-site resistance exercise
- description
- Participants in the on-site group will be asked to participate in resistance exercise on-site with instructor, two times a week for 12 weeks. They will follow the exact same exercise program as the digital group. Participants living around the Gjøvik area will have their exercise sessions at The Inland hospital Gjøvik (with physiotherapist and instructor supervising/mentoring the students), and for participants living around Lillehammer the exercise will be held at a medical clinic (with physiotherapist and instructor supervising/mentoring the students). Participants living around the Hamar area will have their exercise sessions at a fitness center (with physiotherapist and instructor supervising/mentoring the students). A total of 24 exercises will be performed over the period of 12 weeks.
Eligibility
Eligibility (as posted)
- Sex
- All
- Minimum age
- 18 Years
Show eligibility criteria text
Inclusion Criteria: * ≥ 18 years and able to give informed consent * Previously diagnosed with any form of cancer and having completed systemic chemotherapy, immunotherapy or targeted therapies or local radiotherapy not more than 5 years earlier * Living within 20 km of one of the exercise locations (Lillehammer, Gjøvik, or Hamar) * Life expectancy of more than 12 months * Access to digital equipment at home (e.g. PC and/or tablet) and an email address, enabling participation on the digital exercise platform * Able to understand the Norwegian language Exclusion Criteria: * Co-morbidities prohibiting exercise according to the protocol, such as serious cardiac, pulmonary, or other organ diseases * Conditions caused by the cancer that prohibits exercise, such as recent major surgery, fractures, or pain * Still undergoing active cancer treatment * Life expectancy of less than 12 months * Reduced mental capacity such that the participant is unable to give informed consent and follow the program * Has performed regular strength training (two or more times per week) within the last three months Note on reference groups: In addition to the randomized controlled trial, the study includes two non-randomized reference groups that are allocated to the digital home-based intervention only and undergo the same test protocol as the randomized participants. These are: (i) patients undergoing active cancer treatment, and (ii) patients who have completed treatment but live more than 20 km from an exercise location. Reference-group participants must otherwise meet the same inclusion criteria regarding age, cancer diagnosis, life expectancy, digital access, and language, and are subject to the same exclusion criteria, except that ongoing active treatment and distance from an exercise location are permitted as defining features of the respective groups. Patients undergoing active cancer treatment that is expected to confer a high risk of bone marrow suppression - leading to infections, bleeding, and/or severely reduced physical capacity - are excluded.
References
Publications (0)
Data not yet available