Background. Preserving functional walking capacity and nutritional status is important for patients with esophageal cancer, but no effective intervention is available, particularly during active treatment.Methods. This pilot randomized controlled trial tested the effects of a walk-and-eat intervention for patients with esophageal cancer undergoing neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy. Participants with locally advanced esophageal cancer stage IIB or higher (n 5 59) were randomly assigned to receive the walk-and-eat intervention (n 5 30; nurse-supervised walking three times per week and weekly nutritional advice) or usual care (n 5 29; control group) during 4-5 weeks of chemoradiotherapy. Primary endpoints were changes in distance on the 6-minute walk test, hand-grip strength, lean muscle mass, and body weight between initiation and completion of intervention.
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