iBoneFIT

• IP: Luis Gracia Marco
• Contact: lgracia@ugr.es

Currently, one out of 640 young adults is now a childhood cancer survivor. Despite a 13% increase in the childhood cancer incidence over the last 40 years, the 5-year survival rate has now been set up at 80%. Unfortunately, treatment of childhood cancer (i.e. radiation, chemotherapy and/or surgery) is associated with a spectrum of late effects, being endocrine dysfunction one of the most common issues in pediatric cancer survivors and affects the risk of osteoporosis later in life. Recent evidence highlights the survivorship phase (rather than the treatment one) for performing interventions to improve bone health. These young survivors will, in a number of years, become young adults. The prevalence of physiologic frailty in young adult survivors of pediatric cancer is similar to that of the population above 65, suggesting accelerated aging. Therefore, iBoneFIT includes two different but complimentary studies.

The first study will undertake a randomized controlled trial to analyze the influence of a home-based exercise program on bone outcomes in growing pediatric cancer survivors. The 9-month exercise program will involve a combination of strength and jumping activities plus counseling about calcium and vitamin D. The control group will be asked to keep its activity level constant and they will also receive counseling about calcium and vitamin D. After the 9-month study period, participants of the control group will have the opportunity to receive the same home-based exercise program. The second study, with a cross-sectional design, will examine for the first time the associations between physiologic frailty and bone outcomes in adult survivors of pediatric cancer.

This project will contribute to study the effectiveness of exercise on health in childhood cancer survivors. Ultimately, improving participants’ quality of life and well-being will have a huge economic and societal impact, since surviving to childhood cancer has long-term consequences in employment success and productivity losses.

RCT
Assessment protocol set up. Ethic committee approved. Currently, in recruitment phase.
Cross-sectional
Currently, in assessment protocol set up.

The iBoneFIT multicenter study was funded by LaCaixa-Foundation with the following reference number: LCF/ BO/PR19/11700007

The study in the media

• https://www.europapress.es/andalucia/noticia-caixa-concede-ayudas-cuatro-proyectos-investigacion-innovacion-excelencia-vinculados-andalucia-20190917123834.html