The Effect of a Mobile Application on Enhancing Pulmonary Rehabilitation After Lung Cancer Surgery

Official title

The Effectiveness of a Mobile Lung Rehabilitation System on Patient Satisfaction and Lung Function After Lung Cancer Surgery

Overview

The goal of this clinical trial is to investigate the effect of a mobile application intervention on postoperative lung rehabilitation. The main purposes of this study are: 1. To understand the effectiveness of the pulmonary rehabilitation mobile application in improving lung function. 2. To assess the feasibility of the pulmonary rehabilitation mobile application in post-surgery rehabilitation care. Researchers will compare the intervention group (using the pulmonary rehabilitation mobile application) to the usual care group to determine if the mobile application is effective in lung surgery rehabilitation. Participants will join the study immediately after providing informed consent and will continue for up to 7 weeks post-surgery. Participants will be randomly allocated to either the intervention group or the control group. Both groups will receive regular pulmonary rehabilitation during their hospital stay (1 day before surgery and 2 to 3 days after surgery). Researchers will guide participants in the intervention group to use the mobile application for pulmonary rehabilitation exercises throughout the study period. Participants in the usual care group will receive health education and an exercise guide before discharge. Participants will undergo three study assessments: at baseline (within 1 week after enrollment), post-surgery (week 5), and at follow-up (week 8).

Interventions

• Behavioral RehabLung mobile application
  Participants in the intervention group will receive in-person pulmonary rehabilitation during their surgical admission and access to a mobile pulmonary rehabilitation application for self-training. This program begins one month before surgery and continues for seven weeks after surgery. The application is designed to encourage participants to engage in pulmonary rehabilitation exercises from preoperative preparation through postoperative care. It offers guided chest breathing exercises, using vi
• Behavioral Lung cancer postoperative standard care
  Participants in the usual care group will receive in-person pulmonary rehabilitation during surgical admission, pre-operative healthcare, and guidance on breathing exercises to practice before surgery. They will also receive post-operative breathing exercise prescriptions to follow at home.
• Other Healthcare interactive Web Platform
  The healthcare interactive Web Platform provides patients with surgical information through animations. This includes an introduction to lung surgery, preparation procedures, answers to common patient questions, post-surgery wound care, and a brief guide to pulmonary rehabilitation.

Primary outcome measures

• Exercise capacity-oxygen consumption [Time frame: Baseline, post-surgery assessment at week 5, follow-up assessment at week 8]
• Exercise capacity-workload [Time frame: Baseline, post-surgery assessment at week 5, follow-up assessment at week 8]
• Exercise capacity-ventilatory efficiency [Time frame: Baseline, post-surgery assessment at week 5, follow-up assessment at week 8]
• Exercise capacity-Anaerobic threshold [Time frame: Baseline, post-surgery assessment at week 5, follow-up assessment at week 8]
• Pulmoanry function [Time frame: Baseline, post-surgery assessment at week 5, follow-up assessment at week 8]

Secondary outcome measures (5)

• Global respiratory muscle strength [Time frame: Baseline, post-surgery assessment at week 5, follow-up assessment at week 8]
• Six Minute Walk Test, 6MWT [Time frame: Baseline, post-surgery assessment at week 5, follow-up assessment at week 8]
• Postoperative pulmonary complications [Time frame: Baseline, post-surgery assessment at week 5, follow-up assessment at week 8]
• Quality of life - EORTC QLQ-C30 [Time frame: Baseline, post-surgery assessment at week 5, follow-up assessment at week 8]
• Qulaity of life-WHOQOL-BREF [Time frame: Baseline, post-surgery assessment at week 5, follow-up assessment at week 8]

Eligibility criteria

Inclusion criteria

• age over 20 years
• primary diagnosis of lung cancer at any stage and type
• referral to lung cancer resection by thoracotomy or videothoracoscopy
• ability to understand and consent to the trial procedures
• conscious and cognition intact

Exclusion criteria

• included adjuvant treatments (chemotherapy or radiotherapy)
• previous history of thoracic surgery
• neurological and/or musculoskeletal comorbidities
• visual or hearing impairment
• acute respiratory illness

Criteria are shown verbatim from the registry (in English). Final eligibility is always assessed by the study center.

Healthy volunteers: No

Study design

Allocation

Randomized

Model

Parallel assignment

Masking

Double blind

Primary purpose

Supportive care

Study locations

Center list to be confirmed — check the primary protocol.

Publications

• Yang HL, Hung CH, Huang YT, Cheng HC, Tseng YL, Su JM, Tsai KL. The effectiveness of the AI-based RehabLung mobile rehabilitation system on cardiopulmonary function and user satisfaction in lung cancer patients undergoing thoracic surgery: a protocol for a two-arm randomized clinical trial. Ther Adv Respir Dis. 2026 Jan-Dec;20:17534666261427319. doi: 10.1177/17534666261427319. Epub 2026 Feb 28. PMID 41762649

Identifiers

NCT: NCT06600503 · A-ER-111-055

Primary sources (government registries)

• ClinicalTrials.gov (US NIH)

View this study on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗