Objectively measured physical activity during chemotherapy in colon cancer patients.

Purpose: Although adjuvant chemotherapy can have an impact on physical activity (PA), PA level has not been studied in patients with stage II-III colon cancer. This study investigated PA levels during and between chemotherapy cycles.
Methods: We objectively measured PA levels for 2 weeks during the 2nd and 11th chemotherapy cycles. In addition, self-reported PA levels were assessed before chemotherapy initiation, during 2nd, 6th, and 12th chemotherapy cycles. This study included 22 men and 33 women with stage II-III colon cancer patients (57 ± 9 years).
Results: Before the initiation of chemotherapy, most cancer patients were minimally active. Compared with the 1st week of chemotherapy, moderate- and light-intensity PA levels significantly increased during the 2nd week of chemotherapy. Patients increased moderate- and light-intensity PA from 217.4 to 290.3 min per week and from 585.7 to 657.8 min per week, respectively (p < 0.01). PA levels did not show any difference between the 2nd and 12th cycles when objectively measured, or between baseline and 2nd, 6th, and 12th cycles when self-reported.
Conclusion: PA levels during chemotherapy cycles are initially low, and then increase towards the end of the cycle; however, PA levels do not change between chemotherapy cycles. Future work with broader and larger samples size is recommended.