TELEX-Liver Cancer
Research type
Research Study
Full title
TELehealth EXercise for patients with primary liver cancer: TELEX-Liver Cancer
IRAS ID
300809
Contact name
Helen L Reeves
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
ISRCTN Number
ISRCTN14411809
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 8 months, 30 days
Research summary
Background:
Liver cancer is generally diagnosed at an advanced stage. Patients with liver cancer are often elderly, frail, with other chronic health conditions. Structured exercise can bring various health benefits to people living with liver disease or cancer, including improved quality of life, physical fitness, and life-expectancy. However, barriers to these patients taking part in structured exercise include costs, lack of access/transport, and lack of confidence. Advances in technology mean that exercise sessions can now be delivered online in real-time, allowing patients to exercise at home in a ‘virtual’ group setting under the supervision of a physiotherapist.Aims:
Our main aim is to see whether it is feasible to deliver online, live, home-based exercise to older patients with liver cancer. Another aim is to see whether online exercise can improve quality of life, fatigue, and physical function. We will also use patient feedback on the exercise programme to improve how it is delivered.
Methods:
We will deliver live, online, group exercise sessions to 20 patients with liver cancer (aged 60+ years). This will be twice-weekly, seated or standing, tailored to ability, for 10 weeks. Sessions will last for 45-minutes and be supervised ‘virtually’ by a physiotherapist using online videoconferencing. We will assess physical function and self-reported outcomes (e.g. quality of life) before and after the exercise programme. We will also use surveys and interviews to ask patients what they thought of different aspects the exercise programme.Potential impact:
Our findings will tell us whether delivering online exercise to liver cancer patents is feasible and acceptable. This information will help us design a larger study that can confirm the health benefits of virtually-delivered exercise. We hope that this eventually leads to online exercise being part of standard NHS care for liver cancer survivors.REC name
North East - Newcastle & North Tyneside 2 Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
21/NE/0145
Date of REC Opinion
31 Aug 2021
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion