Research is increasingly showing that physical activity for cancer patients before, during, and post-treatment can improve muscular endurance, decrease symptoms of fatigue, improve balance and flexibility, increase muscle mass, and improve quality of life. A collaborative approach between the Leukaemia Foundation of Queensland and Aspire Fitness and Rehabilitation led to the development of an individualised exercise program, aimed at supporting the growing evidence of the benefits of physical activity for people living with a blood cancer.
Fit to Thrive is a 12 week specialised exercise program which aims to assist patients both individually and in a group setting. This allows them to meet their individual goals, enhances their quality of life, and provides them with the best practice in patient care.
Over a two year period, the program has recruited 147 participants (female = 70, male = 77), who ranged in age from 17 to 80 years old and had been diagnosed with a haematological malignancy. Participants completed objective measures and an online questionnaire at week one, seven and twelve. Participants were assessed against their own individual responses and improvements on a number of clinically relevant subjective and objective measures.
Based on the accumulated data and anecdotal feedback, the program has been able to deliver an individualised approach to rehabilitation with statistically significant changes in functional strength and endurance, fatigue and psycho-social measures. Results at the six and twelve month time point also indicated that the improvements had a long-term impact, with all key measures remaining higher than prior to commencement of the program. The outcomes of this pilot study into exercise based interventions for patients may begin to act as a scientifically relevant way to demonstrate the positive outcomes for fatigue tolerance, self-efficacy and psycho-social measures in patients with a haematological malignancy.