NCT05090215: POSTEx

Supervised Exercise for Post-surgery Colorectal Cancer Patients

Completed NA Last updated 16 July 2025

What this trial tests

NA trial testing Aerobic and resistance training 12 week exercise programme in Colorectal Cancer in 21 participants. Completed in 27 January 2024.

Timeline

13 May 2022

Primary endpoint
27 January 2024

27 January 2024

Quick facts

Lead sponsor	University of Nottingham
Phase	NA
Status	Completed
Study type	INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation	randomized
Design	parallel
Masking	single
Primary purpose	treatment
Enrollment	21
Start date	13 May 2022
Primary completion	27 January 2024
Estimated completion	27 January 2024
Sites	1 location across United Kingdom

Drugs / interventions tested

• Aerobic and resistance training 12 week exercise programme
• Venous blood sampling
• Muscle Ultrasound
• Cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET)
• Quality of life questionnaire completion

Conditions studied

• Colorectal Cancer — all drugs for Colorectal Cancer →
• Colorectal Neoplasms — all drugs for Colorectal Neoplasms →

Sponsor

University of Nottingham

Who can join

18 and older, any sex, with Colorectal Cancer or Colorectal Neoplasms. Patients with the condition only — healthy volunteers not accepted.

Sponsor's own description

Participants will undergo preoperative baseline screening and will be randomised to either normal postoperative care or a 12-week supervised exercise programme comprising of both an aerobic and resistance component

They will be assessed prior to surgery which will include cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET). This is a well-established method of assessing aerobic exercise response and is widely used in the perioperative period for assessment of cancer patients with co-morbidity. The assessment days will also include:

* muscle ultrasound (vastus lateralis) to ascertain muscle structure (thickness, pennation angle and fascicle length),
* blood tests,
* functional composite scores,
* quality of life questionnaires,

The assessment days will be carried out at four time points during the study; prior to surgery, before commencement of the exercise program, halfway through the intervention (6 weeks post commencement of exercise) and at the end of the study. In the week before the assessment days patients will wear a physical activity monitor to characterise their daily movements. The control group will also be assessed at the same time points and wear the activity monitors but will not take part in the exercise program.

All participants will have a physical activity monitor placed onto the right thigh in the midline at postoperative day 1 until discharge or day 7, whichever is sooner. This is a non-invasive measure of activity and can discriminate between whether a patient is lying, sitting, standing or walking.

Once participants self-report feeling able to start exercising again post-discharge, they will commence the 12 week programme. The intervention will consist of 2 resistance training (RET) sessions per week and 75 minutes of vigorous or 150 minutes of moderate aerobic exercise per week (can be split according to patient preference). They will receive a diary to log their sessions and will be monitored via twice weekly virtual follow-up (either telephone or video calling) and for the first 6 weeks weekly visits to ensure that they are adherent to the exercise protocol and provide any support/advice. Satisfactory compliance with the programme will be considered to be the completion of at least 27 sessions over the 12 week period, with a minimum of 13 out of 18 and 14 out of 18 sessions completed in the first and last 6 weeks, respectively.

Publications & conference data

No peer-reviewed publications indexed yet for this trial. Completed trials usually publish results within 12-18 months.