Objectives
PREFERABLEās ultimate aim is to improve the health and wellbeing of patients suffering from MBC by alleviating cancer-related fatigue and improving health-related Quality of Life. Exercise interventions in the curative setting lay the groundwork for assessing the effect of exercise on fatigue and QoL in advanced breast cancer patients. To ultimately reach the goal of improving the QoL of patients with MBC, we have formulated the following sub-objectives:
- To ensure efficient and professional management of all partners and day-to-day operational project management
- To develop and implement an optimal exercise intervention in two settings: a) a supervised training program in community / hospital-based fitness centres and/ or exercise facilities at physical therapy clinics and supplemented with b) an unsupervised training program (home-based exercise training).
- To explore the different perspectives of patients on exercising after a diagnosis of MBC in several countries
- To assess the effects of a structured and individualised exercise intervention in patients with MBC on the primary endpoints fatigue and health-related Quality of Life
- To provide recommendation for clinical guidelines for the inclusion of an exercise intervention as supportive care in patients with MBC in the palliative setting
- To decipher the underlying molecular mechanisms of the exercise intervention effects and identify biomarkers to predict success of future interventions and personalise the exercise prescriptions
- To investigate how healthcare systems in different EU countries are organised around integrating exercise interventions into cancer care and to study cost-effectiveness of the exercise intervention by a health technology assessment (HTA)
- To disseminate the results to all relevant stakeholders, make recommendations based on the (cost)-effectiveness of exercise for patients with MBC, and set up a strategy for successful exploitation of PREFERABLEās results