Virtual Prehabilitation of Surgical Cancer Patients in Times of the Covid-19 Pandemic: A Feasibility Study (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Since the beginning of the Covid-19 Pandemic, preoperative care, also termed prehabilitation, have become increasingly relevant due to the decreasing functional and psychosocial health of cancer patients due to the restrictions. Concurrently, there has been improved access to telehealth, which defines all remote care delivery facilitated by information technologies (i.e., virtually). This present protocol describes the rationale and methodology for a major trial investigating the feasibility and primary effectiveness of multimodal virtual prehabilitation services (i.e, teleprehabilitation). OBJECTIVE This present protocol describes the rationale and methodology for a major trial investigating the feasibility and primary effectiveness of multimodal virtual prehabilitation services (i.e, teleprehabilitation). METHODS This quality improvement trial aims to recruit 100 cancer patients to receive teleprehabilitation throughout their preoperative period. The inclusion criteria are: (1) 18 years old, scheduled for elective cancer surgery and referred by a surgeon, (2) to be medically cleared by the referring physician to engage in physical activity; and (3) to have a good comprehension of the English or French language. RESULTS Feasibility will be assessed by documenting adherence and completion rate, in addition to process challenges and benefits, and reasons for not participating in the trial or for discontinuation. Secondary outcomes will be preoperative and postoperative functional capacity and clinical outcomes, in addition to health-related quality of life, anxiety and depression, upon recruitment, before the surgery, and four- and height-week after the surgery. CONCLUSIONS This trial will provide guidance on the use of telehealth in the administration of prehabilitation services, providing large scale information responding to gaps of the literature, as there are minimal reports on the use of telehealth rehabilitation/ prehabilitation services with the elderly populations and in acute contexts, such as the preoperative period. CLINICALTRIAL ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT0479956, registered prospectively on March 16th, 2021; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04799561