Effects of Chemoradiation and Surgery on Cardiopulmonary Fitness and Tumor Neoplastic Phenotype in Gastrointestinal Malignancies

Study Summary

There is growing evidence of the integral role of exercise following cancer treatment. Randomized trials show that exercise improves post treatment symptoms and quality of life in breast and prostate cancer patients.Regular exercise reduces cancer specific and all cause mortality for patients with breast, prostate, brain or colorectal cancer. Nearly a 40-50% relative risk reduction in cancer specific death and 20-50% relative risk reduction in all cause mortality have been reported with exercise. At present it is unknown if preclinical pleiotropic effects on tumors through aerobic exercise are clinically relevant. Before launching into further studies of exercise training on changes in tumor hypoxia and response to CRT in rectal cancer patients, it is first important to understand: 1. Whether measures of exercise exposure (i.e., exercise capacity and self-reported exercise behavior) are associated with markers of tumor hypoxia at diagnosis (prior to initiation of CRT) and 2. Whether changes in measures of exercise exposure over the course of CRT are related to changes in tumor hypoxia and response to CRT.

Primary Outcome

The primary objective is to determine the feasibility of assessing cardiopulmonary fitness pre and post chemoradiation therapy. This feasibility assessment will be reported as a composite of the following variables: (a) the study can accrue 25 patients in no more than 3 years, (b) at least 18 of these 25 patients adhere to the cardiopulmonary testing pre and post CRT; do not drop out early, and do not have an exercise-related adverse event (i.e., cardiac arrhythmias or myocardial infarction), an

Interventions

• OTHER Cardiopulmonary Exercise Test (CPET)