Home-Combo: an Online Home-based Combined Exercise Intervention for Women With Breast Cancer

Background. Chemotherapy drugs carry many side effects that may hinder the functional performance of women with breast cancer (BC). Chemoresistance can lead to treatment failure. A relative dose intensity of chemotherapy \<85% is associated with a worse diagnosis and lower treatment efficacy. Exercise may modulate treatment response through its effects on the tumor microenvironment and treatment tolerability. The need for a pleasant and sustainable exercise practice is important, considering the psychological and physiological stress that accompanies women with a BC diagnosis during treatment. Studies investigating the effects of exercise interventions on chemotherapy completion rates are needed. Background. Chemotherapy drugs carry many side effects that may hinder the functional performance of women with breast cancer (BC). Chemoresistance can lead to treatment failure. A relative dose intensity of chemotherapy \<85% is associated with a worse diagnosis and lower treatment efficacy. Exercise may modulate treatment response through its effects on the tumor microenvironment and treatment tolerability. The need for a pleasant and sustainable exercise practice is important, considering the psychological and physiological stress that accompanies women with a BC diagnosis during treatment. Studies investigating the effects of exercise interventions on chemotherapy completion rates are needed. Purpose. This study will be a 2-arm pragmatic randomized controlled trial, Home-Combo, which will target Portuguese women with a breast cancer diagnosis undergoing either neo-adjuvant or adjuvant chemotherapy. The Home-Combo study primarily aims to investigate the effects of a structured, supervised, home-based combined exercise intervention with self-selected intensity, conducted across the chemotherapy treatment period, on the chemotherapy completion rates of women with BC. Secondly, this study intends to analyze the impact of this intervention on functional performance, body c