Grant: Doctoral Award - Frederick Banting and Charles Best Canada Graduate Scholarships

Rectal cancer patients receive combined radiotherapy and chemotherapy to shrink their tumor before having it surgically removed. Unfortunately, chemoradiotherapy can cause many side effects such as fatigue, diarrhea, pain, distress and physical deconditioning. These side effects can negatively affect quality of life and may even interfere with a patient's ability to complete their treatments and recover from surgery. If patients experience severe side effects, their treatments may be delayed or stopped, making it more likely that their cancer will return. Exercise has the potential to be a low-cost intervention to help manage the physical and psychological side effects associated with rectal cancer and its treatments. In a previous study, we found that rectal cancer patients are willing and able to participate in an aerobic (e.g. walking) exercise program during and after chemoradiotherapy and that exercise is safe. Now, studies are needed to look at the benefits and harms of exercise during and after chemoradiotherapy for rectal cancer. The planned study will examine whether participation in an aerobic exercise program during and after chemoradiotherapy improves rectal cancer patient's quality of life, symptoms, treatment completion and recovery from surgery. This study will be an experimental study with patients placed into 1 of 2 groups. One group will take part in a supervised aerobic exercise program for the duration of their chemoradiotherapy followed by an unsupervised aerobic exercise program after chemoradiotherapy and before their surgery. The other group will not exercise. Patients will be asked to complete a questionnaire and physical fitness tests before they start chemoradiotherapy, after they finish chemoradiotherapy and before surgery. If the results of this trial are positive, exercise may become a key supportive care intervention to help rectal cancer patients complete their treatments, recover after treatments and even improve long-term survival.