Functional Fitness In Cancer Survivors

PURPOSE: Cancer patients commonly show a loss in quality of life and functional capacities. The ECOG Performance Status Scale, developed by the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG), measures how the disease impacts a patient’s daily living abilities. Although, the functional status is determined, there is a lack of objective measures to determine functional fitness. This study evaluated the functional status of cancer patients using the Senior-Fitness-Test (SFT). METHODS: Patients during or after anti-cancer treatment were recruited for this study. Using the SFT, functional fitness was assessed by a trained exercise scientist. All subjects completed seven indices of the SFT, namely, 2-min step test, 30-s arm curl, 30-s chair stand, chair sit-and-reach, shoulder mobility, hand-grip strength, and 8-ft up-and-go (TUGT). ECOG-status was extracted from current medical records or determined by a senior researcher using official rating descriptions. For each SFT item, individual results were assigned to an age referring to normative values. Fitness age (FA), an estimate of how fit individuals are compared to their actual age, was calculated for each participant as the mean age from all seven items. RESULTS: A total of n = 30 subjects (f = 15, 61.6 ± 12.1y, 16 during & 14 after therapy) participated in this study. FA differed significantly from biological age (+8.59 years, 95%-CI: 3.65-13.5, p < .001) with no differences between therapy stages. Patients defined as limited in their functional status (ECOG 1&2) showed no significant difference between FA and biological age compared to patients with ECOG stage 0 (p = .346). CONCLUSIONS: Our results show that the SFT is feasible to assess the functional status in cancer survivors. Our sample showed an average functional fitness comparable to healthy subjects almost nine years older. However, these functional deficits were not reflected by the ECOG status, nor differed between patients during or after therapy. Herewith, the results underline the need for objective measures to assess the functional status for tailored exercise programs to address long-term functional limitations in cancer survivors.