THE EFFECTS OF PHYSICAL FITNESS ON CHILDREN WITH PREVIOUS NEOPLASIA

Abstract

Introduction:There is a lack of data investigating the effects of physical activity (PA) on adolescent and young adultsurvivors of child- hoods’leukemia, moreover some authors suggest that children with diagnosis of leukemia (LK) are showing decreased level of fitness and a moderate risk for developing neuromuscular and musculoskeletal complications.We aim to verify if, in children involved in an individualized physical exercise program, the above-mentionedlow fitness level may be prevented or at least reduced. Subjects and methods:We assessed the level of physical fitness on children with diagnosis of leukemia during the post-chemotherapy period. We evaluated the fitness in 9 children (8.3 ± 2.7 yrs), off-therapy by ≥ 6 months (group GOT) at the end of a physical activity program (13 weekslength).Few validated fitness tests(Ruiz et al., 2011)wereadoptedandthen administered three times in 2 weeks: standing broad jump, 4 x 10 m shuttle test, sit-up test and handgrip strength test. The tests were also administered to a sedentary control group (CG) of 32 children (8.12 ± 1.56 yrs) with no diagnosis of neoplasia.The scores from the performances were used for statistical purposes. Re- sults:Standing broad jump results showed112.55 ± 32.80 cm in GOT and 124.18 ± 22.19 cm in CG, without remarkable differences (p = 0.11). An interesting findingcomes from 4 x 10 m shuttle run test with GOT that revealed 16.27±0.83 seconds, whileCG performed the same test in 14.02±0.25 seconds(p = 0.001). No differences were found when comparing sit-up performances (0.25) and handgrip per- formances (0.08 left arm and 0.15 right arm). Conclusions:After 13 weeks of properly PA program, the level of GOT’s physical fitness appears to be in line with control group results. These preliminary findings are confirming the eligibility of GOT to start a specific exercise program in order to reduce cardiovascular and muscular complications and improve their quality of life. The only concern is about the agility test (4 x 10 SRT) that showedvery high significant differences, (∆=2s). The sample is not adequate to make conclusions. More data coming from a bigger sample size of GOT are necessary to confirm this pilot. References Gohar, S.F., Comito, M., Price, J., and Marchese, V. (2011). Feasibility and parent satisfaction of a physical therapy intervention program for children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in the first 6 months of medical treatment. Pediatr Blood Cancer 56, 799-804. Ruiz, J.R., Espana Romero, V., Castro Pinero, J., Artero, E.G., Ortega, F.B., Cuenca Garcia, M., Jimenez Pavon, D., Chillon, P., Girela Rejon, M.J., Mora, J., et al.(2011). [ALPHA-fitness test battery: health- related field-based fitness tests assessment in children and adolescents]. Nutr Hosp 26, 1210-1214.