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Publications

On this page, we show you all research publications of the FORTEe consortium. These publications report on the research output of the project. For each publication, we provide a brief summary. To read the full article, simply click on the title of the publication.

FORTEe Publications (count: 05)

2025

Wilke, D. et al. Sources of vulnerability and ethical challenges in qualitative research with pediatric cancer patients. Childhood, 0(0). (2025) https://doi.org/10.1177/09075682251316855

  • Qualitative methodologies are well suited and have increasingly been used for exploring pediatric cancer patients’ perspectives, but so far, ethical reflections on qualitative research in this specific setting have largely been missing. Vulnerabilities and ethical challenges are best understood as relational, i. e., as emerging within the situated interactions between patients, researchers and research settings. Patients’ disease- and therapy-related burdens, specifics of qualitative methodology, and patients’ status as ‘minors’ (both in terms of development and of generational power relations) can be identified as sources of vulnerability. Patients’ agreement to participate in research in an unsettled life situation, potential psychological burdens arising from communication in the context of a life-threatening illness, and challenges for relationship building and data generation in this setting are discussed as ethical complexities. Recognizing these vulnerabilities and ethical challenges should not lead to an exclusion of pediatric cancer patients from qualitative studies – as this may in turn expose these patients to epistemic injustice.

2024

Straun K. et al. The development of an augmented reality application for exercise prescription within paediatric oncology: App design and protocol of a pilot study. Health Informatics Journal. 2024;30(4). doi:10.1177/14604582241288784

  • Smartphone applications and other digital health tools are emerging as promising supports for prescribing exercise in healthcare. This study developed a specific augmented reality (AR) app for children and young people aged 9-21 undergoing cancer treatment and established a pilot study protocol. Gathering user experiences, preferences, and suggested improvements is crucial in creating innovative apps like this one, which use algorithms and AR for exercise. Findings from this study will guide the app’s development and inform its application in a long-term paediatric oncology trial.

Fiuza-Luces C et al. The effect of physical exercise on anticancer immunity. Nat Rev Immunol. 2024 Apr;24(4):282-293. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41577-023-00943-0

  • Regular physical activity is associated with lower adult cancer incidence and mortality, as well as with a lower rate of tumour recurrence. The mechanisms underlying the antitumorigenic effects of exercise are reviewed, including an improvement in cancer immunosurveillance is involved, with different immune cell subtypes stimulated by exercise to infiltrate tumours. There is also evidence that immune cells from blood collected after an exercise bout could be used as adoptive cell therapy for cancer, which is of potential interest in the context of childhood blood malignancies.

2023

Valenzuela PL et al. Exercise benefits in cardiovascular diseases: from mechanisms to clinical implementation. Eur Heart J. 2023 Jun 1;44(21):1874-1889. https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehad170

  • Regular physical activity (PA) and exercise play an important role in primary and secondary cardiovascular prevention. This is an important consideration in the context of pediatric and adolescent cancer, because survivors of these malignancies are at higher long-term risk of cardiovascular conditions than their age and gender matched controls with no history of cancer in early life. This review discusses some of the main cardiovascular effects of PA/exercise and the mechanisms involved at the multisystem level.

Kuehn M et al. Physical Activity as a Treatment for Cancer-Related Fatigue in Children, Adolescents and Young Adults: A Systematic Review. Children. 2023 10(3), 572; https://doi.org/10.3390/children10030572

  • Cancer-related fatigue (CRF) is one of the most common and distressing symptoms in paediatric oncology, and therapeutic interventions to reduce this symptom are needed. A systematic review of the literature has shown that physical activity may have the potential to reduce CRF in childhood cancer patients undergoing cancer treatment.

Scientific Background

Neu M et al. (2021). Mental health and health-related quality of life in preschool-aged childhood cancer survivors. Results of the prospective cohort study ikidS-OEVA. Pediatr Blood Cancer. 68(8): e29039.

  • Already at preschool age, young childhood cancer survivors (YCCS) may be at increased risk of mental health (MH) problems and impaired health-related quality of life (HrQoL). This could have impacts on subsequent school performance and educational attainment. Follow-up health care for YCCS may include early screening for MH problems and reasons for HrQoL deficits.

Stössel S et al. (2020). Benefits of Exercise Training for Children and Adolescents Undergoing Cancer Treatment: Results From the Randomized Controlled MUCKI Trial. Front Pediatr. 8: Article 243.

  • Within one of the first randomized controlled trials, this study provides evidence for a positive effect of combined training in childhood cancer patients (CCPs) during intensive cancer treatment.

Faber J et al. (2018). Burden of cardiovascular risk factors and cardiovascular disease in childhood cancer survivors: Data from the German CVSS study. Eur Heart J. 39: 1555-1562.

  • This large childhood cancer survivors (CCS) screening examination revealed consistently in comparison to three population samples a considerably increased risk for premature cardiovascular disease (CVD). The findings in these young adult CCS indicate a high burden of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in the long term.