Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) is a therapeutic procedure used to treat multiple oncological or non-haematological and immunological pathologies as well as other aetiologies. After the administration of high-dose chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy (conditioning), haematopoietic progenitor cells obtained from bone marrow, peripheral blood, or umbilical cord blood are infused (1). This transplant may be autologous (autoHSCT) or allogeneic (alloHSCT) regardless of whether they are related to the patient or not. Transplantation, whether with curative intent or to consolidate the response achieved with prior chemotherapy, can be associated with multiple toxicities, with some of them, such as graft versus host disease (GVHD), also requiring immunosuppressive treatment, usually with high-dose corticosteroids (2).
Different studies have shown a reduction in the functional and physical capacities of these patients because of the disease itself, the transplant process, treatments received and physical inactivity during hospital admission. Furthermore, because of this inactivity, there is an increased risk of complications such as decreased overall muscle capacity, impaired balance, decreased physical function, increased fragility, worsening lung function, and an increased risk of respiratory infections (3). Different physical and emotional symptoms such as fatigue and muscle weakness and depression, anxiety, fear, and frustration, respectively, add to the difficulties of post-transplant recovery (4). Indeed, patients undergoing HSCT therapy usually experience a significant deterioration in their health status, especially among those receiving an alloHSCT. There are often significant changes in the clinical evolution of patients in the first 3 to 6 months after HSCT, the impact of which can be felt for many years (5, 6).
Interventions that include exercise are known to have a beneficial effect on disease-related alterations, improving patient function and participation in the activities of daily living and work. Therefore, these interventions have the potential to help mitigate disability in cancer patients (7–10), and together with oncological treatments, are currently considered the new paradigm for improving patient survival and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) (11–14). Indeed, aerobic activity, sometimes even as basic as walking, positively impacts HSCT patients (15). Aerobic exercise training considerably improves health results and physical functioning in patients with lymphoma without interfering with medical treatments or responses to them, with an improvement in cardiovascular capacity (16).
The first time the positive effects of TE after an autoHSCT were demonstrated was in 1986 in work by Cunningham et al. (17). However, it took until 2003 and 2006 to show the effects of physical activity in patients who had received an alloHSCT (18, 19), with interventions performed on patients after their discharge from hospital. It was not until 2009 that Bauman et al. published the first study on the effects of TE in transplant patients through interventions completed during the conditioning phase and the immediate post-transplant period (20). This study suggested that the use of individually designed programs based on performing daily practices are suitable for all types of patients undergoing HSCT. These authors argued that initiating exercise from the beginning of the acute phase of therapy can reduce patient immobility and improve HRQoL.
In another study also conducted in 2009, a 4–6 week programme that also included the admission period for alloHSCT and incorporated multimodal exercise, relaxation, and education, demonstrated that a combination of such exercises is feasible, effective, and safe for these patients (21). Thus, prescribing regular physical activity to patients can lead to better physical performance during the recovery period and a better perception of physical and emotional state, without posing additional risks (15, 22, 23). Finally, systematic reviews have confirmed that exercise appears to have a beneficial effect on physical fitness, HRQoL, and fatigue compared to standard care in patients treated with a HSCT (14, 24).
30-s CST is one of the most important functional evaluation clinical tests for measures lower body strength and relates it to the most demanding daily life activities (25, 26). This test is not only able to differentiate between subjects with different functional levels, it also assess the fatigue effect caused by the number of sit-to-stand repetitions. Another validated test to assess functional mobility and detect balance and coordination problems is timed up and go (TUG) (27–29) and has been widely used to predict falls in frail patients.
The best time to inform patients about the importance of physical exercise and for its implementation, is at the beginning of the transplant process, especially when patients did not perform adapted physical activity on a regular basis before the diagnosis of disease (7). Physical exercise is safe, feasible, and beneficial for patients before, during, and after alloHSCT (30, 31) and the optimal time for them to begin exercising is before the transplant (24, 30, 32–34). Such interventions must be performed with the supervision of a physiotherapist, if the patient does not have any serious symptoms of bleeding or infections (35). Moreover, professionals must also understand the specific details of the diagnosis and treatments each patient is receiving, as well as the most common associated toxicities (31). For example, it is important for physiotherapists to know that a greater risk of fractures and cardiovascular events is associated with hormonal therapies and which chemotherapies most frequently cause neuropathies, musculoskeletal morbidity, or cardiotoxicity, among others. For this reason, TE must be prescribed individually to avoid injuries or adverse events resulting from the disease characteristics of each patient (31).
In this context, in 2017, a therapeutic exercise programme was launched at the Álvaro Cunqueiro Hospital (HAC) for all patients undergoing HSCT, subsequently, the guide on TE in HSCT published by the Spanish Group for Transplantation and Cellular Therapy (GETH-TC) was based on this (36). We still do not have enough evidence to conclude which exercise prescription is the best for patients before or after HSCT. Given all the above, the objective of this current study was to analyse the effect of TE in patients undergoing HSCT at our centre.