Exercise Program to Reduce Frailty and Improve Treatment Outcomes in Women with Advanced Ovarian Cancer Awaiting Surgery

What this Trial Is About

Individuals with advanced ovarian cancer often face poor survival rates because the disease is usually detected late and treatment options can be limited by other health conditions like frailty, which affects up to half of these patients. Frailty is an age-related decline that impacts surgery outcomes and chemotherapy treatment plans. This research explores whether a structured exercise program, called prehabilitation, performed before surgery can reduce frailty and improve recovery and treatment outcomes for women with advanced ovarian cancer. Participants will engage in a circuit-based prehabilitation exercise intervention that includes light-to-moderate aerobic, resistance, and mobility exercises tailored to their abilities. The program will last a minimum of four weeks and continue up to the time of surgery, with sessions three times per week starting at 30 minutes and progressing to 60 minutes as tolerated. The first exercise session will be in person, and the rest delivered virtually, supervised by a Clinical Exercise Physiologist. Throughout the study, researchers will measure changes in frailty before and after the exercise program and following surgery at one and three months. They will also assess surgical complexity, post-surgical outcomes, complications, and chemotherapy completion rates for up to six cycles. Additional evaluations include body mass index, aerobic and muscular fitness, and health-related quality of life at similar time points. This comprehensive approach aims to understand how prehabilitation exercise influences recovery and treatment plans in this patient group.

Prehabilitation for Ovarian Cancer Patients