PMID 31116453

Research
All papers

Short-term pre-operative high-intensity interval training does not improve fitness of colorectal cancer patients

Boereboom CL, Blackwell JEM, Williams JP, Phillips BE, Lund JN

Question

Can a short pre-operative cycling HIIT program improve cardiopulmonary fitness in colorectal cancer patients before surgery?

Summary

In colorectal cancer patients waiting for surgery, a short supervised cycling HIIT program was completed with full compliance and no clinically significant HIIT-related adverse events, but it did not significantly improve VO2peak or anaerobic threshold. Some blood-pressure and exercise-efficiency measures improved, so this is a useful cautionary paper: very short pre-operative HIIT may be feasible but should not be promised to raise fitness.

Methodology

  • Colorectal cancer patients awaiting surgery without neoadjuvant therapy
  • 18 participants.
  • Stationary cycling.
  • Work intervals: 1 minute.
  • Recovery: 90 seconds unloaded active recovery.
  • Intensity: 100%-120% of baseline CPET maximum wattage.
  • About 15 minutes including warm-up and monitoring.
  • 3 to 4 times/week.
  • Mean 19 +/- 7 days.
  • Prospective single-arm pre-operative intervention study
  • VO2peak, Anaerobic threshold, Blood pressure, and Safety were tracked.

Outcomes

VO2peak

VO2peak did not significantly improve after the short HIIT program.

23.9 +/- 7.0 to 24.2 +/- 7.8 mL/kg/min; table p=0.47

No clear change

Anaerobic threshold

Anaerobic threshold did not significantly improve.

14.0 +/- 3.4 to 14.5 +/- 4.5 mL/kg/min; p=0.50

No clear change

Exercise tolerance

Time to failure and maximum wattage improved.

Time to failure p=.02; maximum wattage p=.007

Improved

Blood pressure

Resting systolic blood pressure decreased.

152 +/- 19 to 142 +/- 19 mmHg; p=.0005

Improved

Insights

  • Very short HIIT blocks should not be expected to reliably improve VO2peak.
  • A compact 5 x 1-minute cycling structure may be feasible under clinical supervision.
  • For frontend, emphasize feasibility and null fitness result rather than benefit claims.

Limitations

  • Small sample
  • No control group
  • Not randomized
  • Very short intervention
  • Clinical pre-operative cancer population
  • Surgery timing constrained dose

Safety

  • No clinically significant adverse events related to HIIT occurred.
  • Participants were clinically screened and monitored; surgery was not delayed.