Effects of a high intensity exercise program after stem cell transplantation

In a paper just published in Plos ONE, we report on a single blind, multicenter randomized controlled trial in which we evaluate the effects of a supervised high intensity exercise program on physical fitness and fatigue in patients with multiple myeloma or lymphoma recently treated with autologous stem cell transplantation, with Saskia Persoon as first author.
A hundred and nine patients joined our study and were randomly assigned to the 18-week exercise intervention or a usual care control group. The primary outcomes included physical fitness (VO2peak and Wpeak determined using a cardiopulmonary exercise test; grip strength and the 30s chair stand test) and fatigue (Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory) and were assessed prior to randomization and after the patients in de intervention group had completed their exercise program.
Patients in the exercise intervention group a
ttended 86% of the prescribed exercise sessions. Of the patients in the control group, 47% reported to have attended more than 10 physiotherapy sessions in the same period of time. Such physiotherapy sessions most likely include supervised exercise. Thus, because the intervention group exercised less than planned, and the control group did more, the difference in exercise participation between the two groups was smaller than anticipated before the study was started.
Median improvements in physical fitness ranged between 16 and 25% in the intervention group and between 12 and 19% in the control group. Fatigue decreased in both groups. There were no statistical significant differences between the intervention and control group.