Effects of a WhatsApp-assisted Prehabilitation for Patient Undergoing Elective Colorectal Cancer Surgery
For patients and families
In plain language
An automatic summary of structured registry data. It is an orientation aid, not a substitute for the official protocol or a physician assessment.
- What is being studied
- The protocol lists: Intervention, Standard care.
- Who it may be relevant to
- Registry conditions: Colorectal Cancer (Diagnosis). Basic parameters: from 18 years · All.
- What needs checking
- Age, condition and sex are only basic indicators. Prior treatment, laboratory values and other mandatory requirements appear in the eligibility criteria below.
- Where it takes place
- Hong Kong
- Next step
- Save the trial, show it to the treating physician, and confirm current recruitment with the study center. Costs, documents and travel →
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Official title
WhatsApp-assisted Prehabilitation Programme for Adult Patient Undergoing Elective Colorectal Cancer Surgery - A Randomised Controlled Trial
Overview
The goals of this study is to evaluate the feasibility and the effects of a WhatsApp-assisted prehabilitation for colorectal cancer patients undergoing elective surgery. The main questions are: If the digital prehabilitation is feasible and acceptable by the colorectal cancer patient prior to elective surgery? If this prehabilitation helps to improve the postoperative complications, length of stay, physical activity and psychological well-being for colorectal cancer patients receiving surgery. Researcher will compare the prehabilitation plus standard care to standard care only to see if the prehabiliation helps the colorectal cancer patients. Participants will: 1) enrolled in a approximate 4 weeks (3 episodes/ week) prehabilitation program containing educational information of colorectal cancer, dietary advice, exercises training and psychological podcasting. 2) will answer the survey weekly and after surgery. 3) keep the standard care as per department guidelines
Detailed description
Colorectal cancer ranks the second most prevalent forms of cancer in Hong Kong and surgery is still the primary curative option. Although compromising result of shorten general length of stay (LOS) in enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) protocol is illustrated, surgical complications such as postoperative ileus (POI) remain unresolved and significant burden associated leads to suboptimal patients' outcomes of prolonged LOS and physical deconditioning with extended rehabilitation. Prehabilitation refers to optimization in a single or multi-disciplinary approach of exercises training, nutritional therapy and psychological counselling, improves physical fitness, strengthens cardiopulmonary function and reduce mental distress through lifestyle modification and better physiological reserve. However, the concept of educations in form of preoperative exercises and nutritional counselling outweighs the purposes of actual prehabilitation and short-handed allied health professionals limited accessibility of regular out-patient counselling in the current clinical practices. Consequently, poor adherence to these preoperative trainings may result in to poor surgical outcomes.
A single with assessor-blinded, double-armed randomised controlled trial study with a prior pilot will be employed to examine the feasibility and effects of a technology-assisted prehabilitation for patients with colorectal cancer surgery. Outcomes of postoperative complications, LOS, physical activity, nutritional status, gastrointestinal recovery and psychological well-being will be evaluated. Elective colorectal cancer surgery patient will be invited to participated in this study.
The result will provide insights of the use of digital approach. To our knowledge, this is the very first trial of digital prehabilitation for CRC patients in Hong Kong public hospitals. Therefore, it provides positive contribution and acts as an important quality benchmark for patients' outcomes. The findings will also generate knowledge on the optimalization of care provided to CRC patients prior to surgery and assist to develop a structured and effective health system in our community. This innovation may have implications to other research studies and extends the potential clinical practices to related subspecialities such as gastric cancer.
Interventions
- Other Intervention
In addition to standard care, participants will receive digital approach of WhatsApp-assisted prehabilitation programme and then start the home-based training for about 3-4 weeks prior to the surgery. The WhatsApp-assisted prehabilitation includes exercises training, dietary advice and psychological support. Contents will contain elements of physical training (e.g. aerobic and resistance exercises) and psychological therapy (e.g. meditation) will be delivered through WhatsApp at three sessions ( - Other Standard care
Standard care as per department guidelines with ERAS protocol (including smoking cessation program, preoperative counselling, early rehabilitation program)
Primary outcome measures
- Postoperative complications [Time frame: Postoperative period: assessed up to first year postoperative]
Secondary outcome measures (6)
- Length of hospital stay (LOS) [Time frame: Postoperative period: assessed up to the first year postoperative]
- Physical activity [Time frame: Assessments at baseline, weekly before the surgery and on the day of discharge: assess up to first year postoperative]
- Gastrointestinal recovery [Time frame: Postoperative period: assessed up to 30 days postoperative]
- Gastrointestinal function [Time frame: Postoperative period: assess up to 30 days postoperative]
- Anxiety and depression [Time frame: Assessments at baseline and on the day of discharge: assess up to first year postoperative]
- Quality of health-related life [Time frame: Assessments at baseline and on the day of discharge: assess up to first year postoperative]
Eligibility criteria
Inclusion criteria
- diagnosis of colorectal-related cancer
- scheduled for elective colorectal cancer surgery as primary treatment
- aged 18 years or above
- expected surgery date more than 21 days
- able to collaborate in the study and sign the informed consent
- able to use WhatsApp application
Exclusion criteria
- identified or known premorbid, that inability to follow the programme
- able to understand written and spoken Cantonese/ Chinese
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
- Single blind
- Primary purpose
- Supportive care
Study locations
Hong Kong · 1 center
- Tseung Kwan O Hospital — Hong Kong
Identifiers
NCT: NCT07376668 · CIRB-2025-099-2