Athletic Intervention After THoracic surgEry for luNg cAncer: a Pilot Study

This is a pilot trial, monocentric interventional study that aims to investigate the results obtained by administering a specific athletic/physical protocol to a cohort of patients who undergo lung surgery after Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) diagnosis. Several studies explored the effects of combined aerobic and resistance training and demonstrated that exercise training improved fitness level (distance walked on the six-minute walk test) and which may also positively influence long-term HRQoL, fatigue, and exercise capacity. Due to the limited number of studies, the effect of exercise training on improvement of pulmonary function (FEV1 and DLCO) and quality of life and other outcomes is still unclear. Several studies explored the effects of combined aerobic and resistance training, however few and controversial data are till now available regarding athletic programs for NSCLC resected patients with good performance status. Ten consecutive patients who underwent resective surgery for NSCLC (5 males and 5 females) will be recruited in to the study. Before and after the training program, patients will undergo evaluation procedures aimed at investigating exercise capacity, respiratory capacity and muscle power. Both the evaluations and exercise sessions will take place at the CRIAMS Sports Medicine Centre (University of Pavia). Each patient will be addressed to a 6-month athletic program under the supervision of a motor scientist to evaluate if this active intervention could positively impact on the recovery and improvement of pulmonary function as well as on quality of life after surgery for cancer. The primary endpoint will be the change of pulmonary function VO2 max) measured at baseline and at the 6 th month of the study. It is defined as the amount of oxygen consumed while sitting at rest and is equal to 3.5 ml O2 per kg body weight x min. Study findings will be compared to storage data on NSCLC patients (with comparable features) who underwent surgery in absence of subsequent active training programs.