Speakers
Description
Introduction
Cancer survivors experience physical and psychological effects from cancer treatments contributing to disability. These effects can be improved by exercise and/or cancer rehabilitation(CR). Guidelines recommend providers discuss exercise with patients and refer to appropriate programs; however, clinicians report barriers to referral and survivors are not connected to the required interventions. The Exercise in Cancer Evaluation and Decision Support (EXCEEDS) algorithm is a decision-support triage tool designed to connect survivors to the right exercise program at the right time.
Objectives
Primary: To assess the acceptability, appropriateness, and perceived usefulness of the EXCEEDS tool among individuals with a recent cancer diagnosis treated with curative intent.
Secondary: To assess EXCEEDS’ effectiveness (impact on behavior).
Methods
This cross-sectional, pragmatic, mixed-methods study includes quantitative evaluations at two timepoints and qualitative semi-structured interviews At time-point one, participants work through the EXCEEDS algorithm and are provided with their level of exercise category recommendation (cancer rehabilitation; clinically-supervised exercise; supervised cancer-specific exercise; unsupervised exercise) and a list of recommended programs for their exercise category. This is followed by a quantitative evaluation to assess the acceptability and appropriateness of the EXCEEDS tool. At time-point two (~4-6 weeks later), participants are asked about patterns of use related to the program recommendations. Semi-structured qualitative interviews will be conducted with a sample of participants (n=10-15) with the aim of gaining a deeper understanding of EXCEEDS’ acceptability, appropriateness, and use/effectiveness.
Results
Recruitment began December 2025 and is ongoing. A small sample (n=7) has completed time-point one and was triaged as follows: three patients to Medical Pre-Clearance, one to Cancer Rehabilitation, one to Clinically Supervised Exercise, and one to Independent Exercise. Updated results and acceptability will be presented at the ISEO meeting.
Conclusion
If acceptable and effective, the impact is a publicly available, online, patient-facing referral system connecting patients with appropriate exercise/CR programs.
Keywords
Exercise oncology, survivorship, cancer rehabilitation, online tool
| Abstract submitters declaration | yes |
|---|---|
| Conflict of Interest & Ethical Approval | yes |
