Tests nutrition with or without exercise before colorectal cancer surgery
Tests whether fixing malnutrition alone helps older colorectal cancer patients walk farther before surgery.
Key facts
- Who runs it
- McGill University
- Where
- Montreal, CanadaSee the site
- Trial code
- Registry title
- Prehabilitation for Colorectal Cancer Patients With Low Functional Capacity and Malnutrition
- Status
- Recruiting
- People taking part
- 60 people, planned
- Started
- 31 Jan 2022
- Expected to end
- Dec 2026
- Type of study
- Interventional, 2 groups
- Treatments tested
- Nutrition
- Exercise
- Record updated
- 9 May 2025
Who can take part
AI summary
From the trial's eligibility criteria. Machine-read from the registry text on this page, so it can be wrong. The registry text below and the trial team decide who can take part.
The trial is looking for people aged 65 and older with colorectal cancer who are waiting for planned surgery, walk less than 400 m in six minutes, and are malnourished.
- Age
- 65 years and older
- Sex
- All sexes
- Disease stage
- Cancer scheduled for primary colorectal resection (surgery to remove part of the colon or rectum). Cancer that has spread (metastatic) is excluded.
- Biomarker or test result
- Six-minute walking distance (6MWD) at baseline less than 400 m. Malnutrition score (Patient-Generated Subjective-Global Assessment) of 9 or higher.
Main reasons for not taking part
- Conditions that make exercise unsafe, such as dementia, Parkinson's disease or a previous stroke with paresis
- Metastatic cancer
- Does not speak English or French and has no companion who does
The registry criteria, word for word
Show all 7 criteriaShow less
Who can take part
- Patients aged 65 years and older
- Patients with cancer scheduled for primary colorectal resection
- Patients with 6MWD at baseline less than 400 m
- Patients with Patient-Generated Subjective-Global Assessment (malnutrition assessment) score equal or greater than 9
Who cannot take part
- Patients with history of premorbid conditions that contraindicate exercise including dementia, -Parkinson's disease or previous stroke with paresis
- Metastatic cancer
- Patients who do not speak English or French and cannot be accompanied by someone who speaks English or French
Where in Canada
- MUHC Research Ethics BoardMontreal, CanadaContact: Elizabeth Craven, PhDTaking people
About the trial
What the trial wants to find out
Despite multi-modal prehabilitation (nutrition, exercise, and psychosocial interventions), 60% of older elective colorectal cancer surgery patients with poor physical function were unable to reach a minimum preoperative 400m six-minute walking distance (6MWD), a prognostic cut-point. Compared to the patients that attained >400m 6MWD preoperatively, twice as many of <400m patients were malnourished. Malnutrition has long been associated with worse functioning (e.g., physical, immune). The investigators hypothesize that for nutritionally deficient patients, the etiology for their poor physical function is malnutrition. Correction of malnutrition alone might thus be sufficient to achieve a 400m 6MWD before surgery and improve patient outcomes.
The 2 groups in the trial
- Nutrition and exerciseOther group
The nutrition intervention will be based on a comprehensive nutrition assessment by a dietitian at baseline, enabling individualized caloric and protein targets. The exercise intervention will be personalized based on a comprehensive assessment to include both a resistance and an aerobic component in the form of a "snack".
Treatment: Nutrition and Exercise
- Nutrition onlyOther group
The nutrition intervention will be based on a comprehensive nutrition assessment by a dietitian at baseline, enabling individualized caloric and protein targets.
Treatment: Nutrition
Questions to ask the study team
- How often do I need to come in, and for how long each time?
- Are travel costs paid?
- Can I keep my own doctor?
- What happens if I want to stop?
Contact the study team: see the registry record → Contacts and Locations
Print a page for my doctorData and sources
- Registry record
- Listed on ClinicalTrials.gov.
- Official title
- Is Correction of Malnutrition Sufficient to Improve Low Physical Function Before Elective Colorectal Cancer Surgery? A Randomized Controlled Trial of Nutrition vs Nutrition and Exercise Prehabilitation
- Plain-language title
- Tests nutrition with or without exercise before colorectal cancer surgeryGenerated from the registry record. The registry title is the official one.
- AI summary
- From the trial's eligibility criteria. Read by machine on 12 November 2026.
- Record updated
- 9 May 2025