Aims: To explore whether specific patient characteristics predict compliance to the current exercise oncology recommendations for women undertaking chemotherapy for newly diagnosed ovarian cancer.

Methods: ECHO is a phase III, randomised, controlled trial evaluating the effect of exercise during chemotherapy for women with ovarian cancer on progression-free survival (target sample, n = 500). Consenting women are randomised to either the Exercise Intervention plus usual care or Usual Care alone. The exercise intervention involves individualised exercise prescription with the weekly target consistent with national exercise oncology recommendations (i.e., 450 metabolic equivalent task minutes [MET-minutes] of mixed-mode exercise). Weekly exercise volume (combining duration and intensity) was recorded and calculated by the Exercise Professional during weekly contact with participants throughout the intervention duration (duration is based on length of neo- and/or adjuvant chemotherapy; ∼18 weeks). The participant was considered compliant if they completed 450 MET-minutes of weekly, mixed-mode exercise in ≥75% of intervention weeks. Generalized Linear Models were used to explore the relationship between baseline patient characteristics (e.g., personal, diagnostic, treatment, and behavioural) and exercise compliance.

Results: We report here the findings from the first 114 women randomised to the Exercise Intervention. While median weekly exercise volume for the sample was 435 MET-minutes (min-max = 0-3697), only 17% were compliant to exercise oncology recommendations for ≥75% of intervention weeks. Receiving neoadjuvant chemotherapy was associated with decreased odds of complying with exercise oncology recommendations (Odds ratios, 95% CI: 0.21, 0.08-0.54, P ≤ 0.01), while current employment was associated with higher odds of meeting exercise targets > 75% of intervention weeks (Odds ratios, 95% CI: 2.42, 1.02-5.74, P = 0.05).

Conclusions: These preliminary results identify patient characteristics that may assist in understanding who may require additional exercise advice and support during chemotherapy.