Technology-Supported Physical Activity Intervention for Metastatic Breast Cancer Survivors:Fit2ThriveMB

Increased incidence and life expectancy has resulted in a growing population of metastatic breast cancer (MBC) patients. MBC patients have poorer quality of life (QOL) and higher rates of functional decline and premature mortality compared to early stage survivors and healthy controls. Interventions are needed to alleviate adverse health effects and allow metastatic patients to function optimally in the years they survive with advanced cancer. However, few health-enhancing interventions exist for women with MBC. Increased physical activity (PA) is consistently associated with fewer treatment-related side effects, higher QOL, increased survival and reduced recurrence and mortality among early stage survivors. Increasing light intensity PA and reducing time spent sedentary may also reduce functional decline, improve QOL and reduced mortality independent of more intense PA. However, there is a paucity of research on PA in MBC patients, and existing interventions have been deemed not feasible due to their focus on intense PA and/or requiring on-site visits. mHealth PA interventions may be particularly useful for these metastatic breast cancer patients because they allow for remote monitoring which facilitates individual tailoring of PA programs to patient’s abilities and do not require travel to on-site, supervised PA sessions, reducing participant burden. Yet, no studies have examined a mHealth PA intervention in MBC patients. We propose to address these critical research gaps by testing a highly tailored technology-supported intervention to promote PA of any intensity (i.e. light, moderate or vigorous) via increasing daily steps in MBC patients. This approach may have substantial health benefits for MBC patients, facilitate gradual and safe adoption of more intense PA and be more achievable than high volumes of more strenuous PA. The primary aim of this study is to pilot test the feasibility and acceptability of a 12 week mHealth intervention to increase PA in inact