2126P - Exercise implementation into a clinic setting with 1.660 cancer patients: Real-world data from eight years oncological exercise therapy in Cologne (OTT)

Background

The beneficial effects of exercise for cancer patients are well recognized but implemented exercise programs remain scarce, especially for patients during medical treatment. For that reason, we developed a supervised, personalized exercise concept for cancer patients, implemented into a clinical, oncological setting.

Methods

Cancer patients before, during or eventually after their medical treatment with an identified need for exercise could participate in a free of charge exercise intervention for at least three months at the University Hospital Cologne, Germany. We recorded demographic and medical data at enrolment and exercise adherence up to one year.

Results

A sample of n=1.660 patients attended the exercise program. The majority of patients were female (70%), under medical treatment (65%), diagnosed with breast cancer (40%), without metastasis or severe comorbidities (>70%) and on average 54 years old. The median time between diagnosis and exercise participation differed in patients during medical treatment (4 months), patients with metastasis (7 months) and cancer survivors (11 months). Almost one third (31%) discontinued exercise within the first two weeks of participation. Prolonged exercise (median: 19 weeks) was achieved by one third (32%) of the patients. The average exercise adherence was ∼1 session a week with <3% of patients reaching ≥2 sessions a week

Conclusions

To our knowledge, this is the worlds-first report of a professional, supervised exercise program tailored for cancer patients under medical treatment implemented into a clinical setting with >1.600 patients. We described the population that was referred to an exercise program, identified barriers to exercise participation and observed an important mismatch between recommendations and real-world exercise data. Exercise participation was engaged ≥4months after diagnosis and only a third of the patients exercised longer than three months. Almost all patients undercut the well-established exercise recommendations of ≥2 sessions a week. Future implementation concepts should optimize exercise initiation timely after diagnosis and adherence levels due to innovative exercise approaches.

Clinical trial identification

Editorial acknowledgement

Legal entity responsible for the study

University Hospital of Cologne, Cologne, Germany.

Funding

German Cancer Aid.

Disclosure

All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.