Design of a Physical Activity Program to Prevent Functional Decline in Onco-Geriatric Patients (CAPADOGE):...

Cancer in older patient favours the development of frailty: feeling of exhaustion, loss of weight, decreased muscle strength, slow gait speed, and low physical activity.

To evaluate the efficacy of adapted physical activity phone advices in limiting the cancer-induced loss of autonomy and frailty phenotype development.

Multicenter randomized controlled trial.

Patients (>70y) undergoing curative treatment for cancer (n=400) will be recruited from 12 centres.

The intervention consists in phoned personalized physical activity advices related to strength, aerobic, balance, proprioception, and flexibility. The contacts are performed twice a month during six months and then monthly until 1 year. The intervention complements the PNNS booklet advices (National Nutritional Health Program). The trial compares «individualized phone advices + PNNS» to «usual care + PNNS».

Functional, cognitive, clinical and self-reported data are assessed before treatment and at 3, 6, 12, 18, and 24 month follow-up. The primary outcome is the proportion of subjects with a one-year decreased SPPB (Short Physical Performance Battery) score of one point or more, as compared to baseline. The secondary outcomes include quality of life items, rate of hospitalizations, institutionalizations, mortality, Fried phenotype at 1 and 2 years, and the SPPB score at 2 years.

This large trial will provide clinical data of the effects of an exercise advices intervention in older patients during cancer therapy on function and cognition evolution, and quality of life. The possibilities of minimizing the development of frailty phenotype due to these advices will be explored.