• Shu-Chen Chen, Hsiang-Ping Huang, Wen-Shih Huang, Yung-Chang Lin, Tsui-Ping Chu, Randal D Beaton, and Sui-Whi Jane.
• Department of Nursing, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Chia-Yi, Taiwan.
• Eur J Oncol Nurs. 2020 Dec 1; 49: 101834.

PurposeMany colorectal cancer (CRC) patients report having Oxaliplatin-induced peripheral neuropathy (OXAIPN), compromising their overall quality of life (QoL). Yet, the existing studies on examining the effects of elastic-band resistance exercise yielded inconsistent results and there was a scare study with CRC population employing a longitudinal research design. The purpose of this non-randomized preliminary study was to examine the effects of an educational program providing skills and knowledge about OXAIPN along with home-based lower extremity elastic-band exercise training in a sample (n = 42) of Taiwanese patients with CRC.MethodA quasi-experimental study with one-group, pretest-posttest repeated measures and longitudinal design was employed. The 4.5-month interventional protocol included 8 sessions of face-to-face education from the 3rd to the 7th cycles of chemotherapy. Physical exams, muscle strength and endurance, and self-reports regarding adverse impacts of OXAIPN and QoL were obtained at three time points throughout chemotherapy course.ResultsThe most consistently significant increase was the participants' muscle strength and endurance measured with one-repetition maximum and 6-min walk distance, respectively (both P < .001). The participants' OXAIPN-related QoL showed significant improvements at some time points of the chemotherapy cycles, but not others.ConclusionStudy findings indicated that an educational program combined with knowledge about OXAIPN symptom management and skills with lower extremity resistance training had potential benefits over time on muscle strength and endurance and autonomic dimension of CIPN-related QoL. These preliminarily results may assist healthcare providers to incorporate self-management strategies such as lower extremity exercise for patients with OXAIPN to partially mitigate its negative effects.Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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