“Supervised exercise is associated with clinically meaningful improvements in functional capacity and quality of life in patients with advanced lung cancer receiving immunotherapy,” according to results presented during the 2026 European Lung Cancer Congress.
A team of researchers from Greece conducted the study and presented their findings at the conference in Copenhagen, Denmark. The investigators explained that it was important to analyze the effect of exercise interventions in this patient population, as evidence of its impact among individuals undergoing immunotherapy “remains limited.”
Eligible participants included “patients with advanced lung cancer receiving first-line immunotherapy with or without chemotherapy.” Patients were randomly divided into an interventional cohort receiving a supervised 8-week outpatient exercise program or a “usual care” cohort. The investigators highlighted that “twenty-four age-matched health individuals were included as a reference group.”
Moreover, the primary end point was the change in functional capacity, which was evaluated by a 6-minute walk test, while secondary end points included physical function, inflammatory markers, exploratory oncologic outcomes, and quality of life.
A total of 148 patients were screened for eligibility and 42 patients were selected for participation in the study. Eligible participants were “enrolled and randomized,” with 18 patients placed in the intervention group and 24 patients placed in the usual care group. The median follow-up for the study was 18.5 months.
According to the results, the exercise intervention group “demonstrated a significant improvement in functional capacity, with increased 6-minute walk test distance.” In contrast, no significant change in functional capacity was observed in the control group and symptom burden worsened. Other factors that improved in the intervention group included muscle strength, physical performance, fine motor dexterity, and quality of life.
The findings also demonstrated “a significant between-group reduction in neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio” observed in the exercise group, although “no statistically significant difference in median progression-free survival was detected” between groups. Overall response rate was also similar between groups (22.2% vs 29.2%; P=0.731) and “exploratory analyses suggest that treatment regimen may influence exercise responsiveness.”
Although supervised exercise correlated with “clinically meaningful improvements in functional capacity and quality of life,” the investigators highlighted that “exercise was not associated with differences in objective response rate, while a non-significant numerical difference in progression-free survival was observed.”