An interventional study of Cardiac Coherence and Adapted Physical Activity in Physical Activity, Cancer and Hematologic Diseases, sponsored by Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de la Réunion. Completed at 1 site in Reunion. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2025-10-02.
Sponsored by Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de la Réunion · Not applicable, Interventional, and Supportive care
APACCHE (Adapted Physical Activity and Cardiac Coherence in HEmatologic patients) study investigates effects of heart rate variability biofeedback training, combined with classical adapted physical activity, on health-related quality of life in patients previously treated for hematologic malignancies. It is a prospective, randomized clinical trial from University Hospital of Reunion Island. The main objective is evaluated with QLQ-C30 survey score differences.
Hematologic malignancies are aggressive cancers with significant long-term effects on physical and psychological health, due to the disease itself or aggressive treatments. Physical activity, with specific treatments, improves physical and psychological health in solid tumors patients. However, in hematologic malignancies, there is unsatisfactory quality of evidence that physical activity alone improves the various dimensions of quality of life.
Recent studies on heart-brain connections suggest that a high level of coherence in the heart rate variability may induce psychophysiological positive effects. Cardiac coherence is reached when the heart rhythm pattern becomes sine-wave-like at a frequency around 0.1 Hz. This status can be increased by the mean of deep and slow breathing control and/or positive emotions. By using a heart rate variability biofeedback training, previous studies have shown effects on physiological variables such as reduction of blood pressure or increase of vagal heart rate control, and also on psychological variables such as reduction of stress, anxiety, and depression.
The APACCHE protocol investigate if cardiac coherence biofeedback training, associated with an adapted physical activity program, can improve health related quality of life in adult hematologic patients.
70 patients are randomly assigned to receive either ten sessions of cardiac coherence biofeedback (CC-BF) and the adapted physical activity program (APA) or just APA. Both interventions are conducted simultaneously over 12 weeks, with 10 sessions of CC-BF (45mn) weekly and 24 sessions of APA (1h30) bi-weekly.
Data are collected at enrollment(T1), at 6 weeks (T2), at intervention ending at 12 weeks (T3) and after a 24 weeks follow-up (T4).
10,818 studies on the registry are indexed under Neoplasms; 2,324 are open to participants now.
This study's enrollment of 80 is above the median of 60 across 7,703 interventional studies indexed under Neoplasms.
Browse Neoplasms studies →Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de la Réunion is the lead sponsor of 141 studies on the registry; 37 are open to participants now.
Compared within Neoplasms, this study's primary condition as ClinicalTrials.gg classifies it; the registry's first condition term is Motor Activity. The counts are of registry records indexed under each term, refreshed daily. How we classify →
Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.
Exclusion Criteria:
Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Malignancy means cancer. Criteria about another or earlier malignancy ask whether you have had a different cancer, usually within a set number of years.
Some are commonly allowed, such as treated skin cancers other than melanoma and early cancers removed completely — check the exceptions this study lists.
The protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen. A low level is anaemia, which can cause tiredness and breathlessness. Measured in g/dL or g/L (9 g/dL is 90 g/L).
Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.
You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.
A reason a treatment, test or procedure should not be given to a particular person, such as an allergy, another illness or a medicine they take.
The share of blood the heart’s main pumping chamber (the left ventricle) pushes out with each beat, measured by an echocardiogram (heart ultrasound) or a MUGA scan. About 50–70% is normal.
Cancer (malignancy)
Malignancy means cancer. Criteria about another or earlier malignancy ask whether you have had a different cancer, usually within a set number of years.
Some are commonly allowed, such as treated skin cancers other than melanoma and early cancers removed completely — check the exceptions this study lists.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Hemoglobin (Hb)
The protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen. A low level is anaemia, which can cause tiredness and breathlessness. Measured in g/dL or g/L (9 g/dL is 90 g/L).
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Informed consent
Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.
You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Contraindication
A reason a treatment, test or procedure should not be given to a particular person, such as an allergy, another illness or a medicine they take.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
LVEF (left ventricular ejection fraction)
The share of blood the heart’s main pumping chamber (the left ventricle) pushes out with each beat, measured by an echocardiogram (heart ultrasound) or a MUGA scan. About 50–70% is normal.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Patients participate to Adapted physical activity sessions and to cardiac coherence sessions
Procedure: Cardiac Coherence
Patients only participate to Adapted physical activity sessions
Procedure: Adapted Physical Activity
* 10 sessions of HRV-BF (45mn) weekly over 12 weeks. HRV-BF is a cognitive behavioural therapy consisting on stress management training based on breathing. We use the SYMBIOLINE PC software to record the heart rate variability biofeedback, with an infrared plethysmograph sensor. The sensor is put on the finger, and the patient's HRV pattern is displayed in real time. * 24 APA sessions (1.5h) bi-weekly over 12 weeks. Each session includes aerobic exercises (walk, step) and resistant exercises (muscular reinforcement). This program is built on previous cancer studies to make it effective.
\- 24 APA sessions (1.5h) bi-weekly over 12 weeks. Each session includes aerobic exercises (walk, step) and resistant exercises (muscular reinforcement). This program is built on previous cancer studies to make it effective.
Health-related quality of life
Health-related quality is assessed by the Quality of Life Questionnaire dedicated to cancer patients and including 30 items (QLQ-C30) developed by the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC). This questionnaire is a multimodal construct, typically including physical, emotional and psychological health issues; evaluated with the QLQ-C30 survey of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer. QLQ-C30 items are coded with the same response categories as items 6 to 28, namely "Not at all", "A little", "Quite a bit" and "Very much." Score ranges from 0 to 100, with higher score indicating higher levels of quality of life.
Time frame: on week 12
Fatigue improvement
Fatigue improvement is assessed by multidimensional fatigue inventory (MFI-20 survey). MFI-20 consists of five subscales used to express: general fatigue, physical, reduced activities, reduced motivation, mental fatigue. Each scale contains four items for which the person had to indicate the extent the items describe their situations in the recent few days on a 5-point Likert scale, ranging from "yes, that is true" to "no, that is not true" Scores on each subscale range from 4 to 20, with higher scores indicating higher levels of fatigue.
Time frame: through study completion: initially (T1), at 6 weeks (T2), 12 weeks (T3) and after at 24 weeks (T4) follow-up
Anxiety and depression improvement with Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) survey
Anxiety and depression improvement is assessed by HADS survey. The HADS is a fourteen item scale that generates ordinal data. Seven of the items relate to anxiety and seven relate to depression. Each item on the questionnaire is scored from 0-3: a person can score between 0 and 21 for either anxiety or depression. Higher scores indicate higher levels of depression or anxiety
Time frame: through study completion: initially (T1), at 6 weeks (T2), 12 weeks (T3) and after at 24 weeks (T4) follow-up
Cardiac coherence improvement
Increased percentage of cardiac coherence is measured with SYMBIOLINE software
Time frame: through study completion: initially (T1), at 6 weeks (T2), 12 weeks (T3) and after at 24 weeks (T4) follow-up
Plan to share: No
Ran from Jan 2018 to primary completion in Oct 2023, 69 months.
Of 1,981 non-industry interventional studies with no phase under Neoplasms, half reached primary completion within 29 months of starting (the median), counting those still running; a quarter within 13 and three quarters within 52. This study's 69 months is above that.
Counting every sponsor, half of 2,056 studies reached it within 29 months; a quarter within 13 and three quarters within 52.
Neoplasms covers many different conditions, not one, so the studies compared here vary widely. Read these figures as a rough guide.
How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.
This study is completed, as verified in Sep 2025. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.
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