Exercise measurements and interventions for children with childhood cancer

Abstract

This thesis describes a systematic review over the effects of exercise interventions for children with childhood cancer. The author conclude that exercise interventions for children and young adults during and after treatment for childhood cancer show promising results for physiological outcomes like muscle strength and joint mobility. None of the investigated studies showed any effect in psychological outcomes. None of the studies have reported adverse effects, indicating that it is probably safe to perform exercise interventions for children during their treatment for ALL. However due to several forms of bias we are very uncertain about the estimate of effect and further research is very likely to have an important impact on the investigated outcome measures. The second part of this thesis decribes an alternative maximal cardiopulmonary exercise test (CPET) for children with childhood cancer. The Steep Ramp Test (SRT) is investigated on its validity compared to the CPET. The authors conclude that the SRT is a safe and valid, novel short time maximal exercise test to estimate the VO2peak for a child with cancer. The obtained Wpeak on the SRT can give the daily practitioner indications for training intensity for this patient group and thereby contribute to a well-designed support to accomplish better results for exercise training in the near future.