Improvement of frailty and prefrailty in older cancer survivors: a 6-month home-based pilot study.

BACKGROUND: Frailty affects 42% of older patients with cancer and is a predictor of cancer recurrence and mortality. Its impact on older cancer survivors has not yet been extensively studied. OBJECTIVE: Assess the impact of a multicomponent home-based intervention on frailty prevalence in older adults in remission from cancer. DESIGN: Bicentric before-and-after non-randomised intervention study (NCT04746768). SETTING: Community-dwelling. SUBJECTS: Patients ≥70 years old in remission from cancer who met at least one criterion for the Fried phenotype. METHODS: A 6-month multicomponent home-based intervention was performed combining supervised exercise training and personalised nutritional support. The primary endpoint was the proportion of patients who achieved frailty or prefrailty improvement from the initial assessment (M0) to M6. RESULTS: The mean age of the 110 participants was 77 (SD = 5) years. At baseline, 45% were frail and none were robust. Eighty-one completed the intervention (Completion Group: CG). In CG, functional, physical performance measures and the T-stage of cancer were associated with baseline frailty, while none of the other cancer-related characteristics were. Among the CG, 62% improved their frailty status at M6: 78% of frails improved, 51% of pre-frail became robust. Frailty severity decreased at M6 in 74% of participants. Vitamin D showed a group × time interaction, suggesting that frailty trajectories differed according to vitamin D status. CONCLUSIONS: These preliminary findings suggest a potential beneficial effect of a home-based multicomponent intervention to improve frailty in community-dwelling older cancer survivors. Further controlled and adequately powered trials are required to confirm these findings.