Introduction: The evidence in support of benefit through exercise for brain cancer is not well established.

Aim: To determine the safety, feasibility and effect of an 18-week individualised exercise intervention for adults with primary brain cancer.

Methods: Eligible patients who were 12-26-weeks post-radiotherapy were recruited. The weekly exercise goal was ≥150-minutes of moderate-intensity exercise per week, including ≥two resistance-training sessions. The intervention was deemed ‘safe’ if exercise-related, serious adverse events (SAE) were experienced by < 10% of participants. The intervention was deemed feasible if recruitment and retention was ≥75%, and adherence and compliance rates were ≥5% for more than 75% of participants. Quality of life (QOL, FACT-BR), fatigue (FACIT-F), mood (HADS), body mass index (BMI), lower-body (LB) strength, aerobic fitness (6-minute walk test) and physical function (SPPB) were assessed at baseline, mid-intervention, end-intervention, and 6-month follow-up. Generalised linear models were used to evaluate the effect of exercise over time.

Results: Twelve participants enrolled (mean age 51±19.5 years, 7 males). There were no exercise-related SAE reported. The intervention was feasible according to recruitment (80%), retention (92%) and adherence (83%). On average, by end-intervention participants completed 126±134 minutes/week, however only 17% of participants met the compliance outcome threshold for more than75% of the intervention. Five participants did not complete the follow-up assessment. Of the remaining seven, clinically-relevant (≥0.5 SD change) improvements in QOL (Δ±SE:10.6±5.9 P = 0.03), fatigue (14.0±5.8 P = 0.04), physical activity (98.8±33.6-minutes P = 0.01), aerobic fitness (53.3±24.7metres P = 0.01), physical function (0.1±0.2 P = 0.04), and LB strength (13.6±3.0 P < 0.001) were observed over time. Improvements were also observed in depression (1.8±1.4 P = 0.16) and BMI (0.2±0.6 P = 0.21) but these results were not supported statistically.

Conclusion: These preliminary findings support that supervised exercise is safe in brain cancer and potentially beneficial to QOL and functional outcomes. Future research should identify reasons for withdrawal and barriers to meeting exercise prescription targets.