Why it matters

During cancer treatment, a vicious circle of increasing physical inactivity is often observed. The cause: Treatment-disease related and psychosocial factors. In adult cancer patients, specific exercise training has revealed positive effects on cancer-related fatigue, health-related quality of life, pain or complication rate during anti-cancer treatment. An improvement in exercise capacity was associated to a reduced risk of morbidity and mortality in cancer patients.

But what about childhood cancer patients? Until now, precision exercise training has not yet been part of standard care in paediatric oncology and does therefore not reach most young patients.

The overall goal of the FORTEe project is to create high evidence for the use of precision exercise interventions in childhood cancer by conducting the largest randomised controlled trial in this field during anti-cancer treatment. During the project lifetime of 5.5 years, FORTEe aims to generate meaningful advances in clinical care for children and adolescents with cancer. This will enable future access to adapted exercise training to children with cancer all over the EU and increase the children’s health-related quality of life.