A Feasibility Study for a Randomized Controlled Trial of a Seven-day Preoperative Exercise Training Program in People With Abdominal Cancer

Patients from the General Surgery ward at the Institute of Medical Assistance to Employed of São Paulo, Brazil, will be identified. Potential participants will be provided with a participant information sheet and, for those willing to participate in the study, a written informed consent will be obtained. The reasons for ineligibility and the reasons for declining participation will be recorded. Both before and following the intervention period, participants will complete assessments over a single day. Measures will be collected of: anthropometric and clinical data, preoperative exercise capacity and peripheral muscle strength. Following the completion of the intervention period, adherence rates (consent rates, recruitment rates, completion rates and adherence), adverse events and the subjective perception of satisfaction and discomfort of the participants to the preoperative treatment will also be recorded. The preoperative exercise training program will be supervised by a physiotherapist and will comprise aerobic exercise on a treadmill as well as strengthening exercises for the upper and lower limbs. The protocol will include 7 daily sessions of 60 minutes in duration. The first session will occur the day following the initial assessments. The treadmill exercise will start with a 5-minute warm-up and will progress to 30 minutes of exercise with a speed corresponding to 70% of the maximum speed reached in the incremental shuttle walk test. It will finish with a 5-minute cool down period. The intensity goal for the treadmill exercise will be to generate a rate of perceived exertion (on the dyspnea scale that ranges between 6 and 20) between 12 and 16. Exercise intensity (i.e. walking speed) will be progressively increased if the participant is able to walk for 30 minutes continuously reporting tolerable symptoms (dyspnea<12 points). Participants will also perform three strengthening exercises for the lower limbs (hip flexion, knee flexion and extension) and three for the upper limbs (shoulder flexion, elbow flexion and extension). The initial strengthening exercises intensity will be set at 60% of 1 Maximum Repetition and will be progressively increased. Patients will perform 3 sets of 8 to 12 repetitions for each exercise. The increment in exercise intensity will occur when the participant is able to perform at least 2 sets of 15 repetitions reporting tolerable symptoms (i.e. dyspnea<12 points).

Heart rate, peripheral oxygen saturation, dyspnea and blood pressure will be measured before, during (if needed; i.e. if symptoms are reported) and after each exercise training session. The session may be interrupted at any time if the patient presents major symptoms of dizziness, nausea or intolerable dyspnea/fatigue. Following surgery, all participants will receive routine physiotherapy care by the Physiotherapy team of the Institute of Medical Assistance to Employed of São Paulo