P-OGC17 Feasibility and impact of a home-based prehabilitation programme on patients receiving neoadjuvant treatment for oesophagogastric cancer (the chemofit study)

Abstract

Abstract Background Treatment for locally advanced oesophagogastric adenocarcinoma (OGA) involves neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) which has a negative impact on patient fitness. Using ‘prehabilitation’ to increase activity levels and fitness may affect physiology, postoperative outcomes and improve patient wellbeing and quality of life. The aim of this study was to evaluate feasibility, acceptability and the impact of a home-based structured prehabilitation programme in OGA. Methods This feasibility study recruited consecutive patients to a pragmatic home-based prehabilitation during NAC. Participants completed daily walking sessions to a targeted step-count and daily strengthening exercises, under the weekly supervision of the research team. The primary outcomes assessed feasibility through recruitment rate, completion rate and individual compliance with each component of the intervention. Secondary outcomes included fitness derived from cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET). Results A total of 42/58(72%) patients approached were recruited, 36/39(92%) patients completed the programme. Median compliance with wearing a pedometer and recording step count was 97.8%(IQR 93.2-100%) and median engagement with telephone contacts was 100%(IQR 93.1-100%). Median compliance with 30-minutes aerobic exercise was 70.2%(IQR 53.1-88.9%) and for strength exercises 69.4%(IQR 52.1-84.3%). Nineteen patients had pre and post intervention CPET with no significant difference in anaerobic threshold (mean difference -0.5 ml.kg-1.min-1, 95% CI -1.6 to + 0.6, p = 0.387) or VO2peak (mean difference -0.1 ml.kg-1.min-1, 95% CI -1.6 to + 1.4, p = 0.883). Conclusions This study shows that ChemoFit is feasible, safe and achieved excellent patient compliance and engagement. Future utilisation of this home-based prehabilitation programme may improve preoperative fitness during NAC and impact post-operative outcomes.