Aerobic Exercise and Tai-chi Interventions for Improving Survival in Lung Cancer Patients

Duration of survival in participants shall be monitored. For cases of death, causes of death will be collected from patients' clinical dataset to insure data quality. Cancer progress-free survival will be taken at the end of the study period.

To measure compliance to exercise all participants will be measured for their level of physical activity in daily living. Physical activity will be quantified with a non-invasive small-size wrist-worn piezoelectric accelerometer (Actigraph; Ambulatory Monitoring Inc., New York). Actigraphy has been shown to provide valid assessments of physical activity. The user-defined time interval for the count of wrist accelerations is 1 min. Patients will be asked to wear the actigraph for at least 3 consecutive 24-hour spans. Each patient will keep a diary for times of rising and retiring.

We will measure circadian rhythms using biomarkers that have been linked to survival of cancer patients, melatonin rhythms and cortisol rhythms will be measured using saliva samples collected before and after intervention. The melatonin and cortisol levels will be measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kits. The saliva will be collected using Salivettes at following time points: 1 hour, 6 hour, 12 hour and 16 hour after habitual wake time (referred as circadian time).

Cardio-respiratory fitness shall be evaluated using the 6-minute walking test (6MWT). The 6MWT has been widely used to assess cardio-respiratory fitness in lung cancer patients [28-30]. The 6MWT requires participants to walk on an even and flat surface between two cones set 30m apart, with the object being the participant walking as far as possible within the 6 minutes period (if participant cannot continue for the 6 minutes, the test will end). The walking test is measured in units of meters walked at the end of the 6 minutes.

A battery of physical functioning tests will be used to evaluate participants' agility (timed up and go test), strength (sit to stand test) and balance (single leg standing test). Physical fitness will also be assessed using the Get Active Questionnaire (GAQ). The GAQ assesses if participants are safe to participate in the interventions and ensures if participants can perform the exercises within the intervention.

For each participant, 10 ml of peripheral blood will be collected before and after intervention in intervention groups, as well as in control group at the same time points, for some immune functional studies. The peripheral blood mononuclear cells are isolated for measurements of immune functions. Immune functions will be analyzed by cytotoxic activity of natural killer (NK) cells, and spontaneous or phytohemagglutinin (PHA)-stimulated T-lymphocyte proliferation

Health related QoL is an important outcome for lung cancer patients and plays an important impact on prognosis. The Chinese version of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Core Questionnaire (EORTC QLQ-C30) and the corresponding lung cancer-specific module (QLQ-LC13) shall be used as measurements of QoL

To evaluate psychological distress the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Score (HADS) will be used. The HADS comprises seven items each for anxiety and depression. Each item of the anxiety subscale and the depression subscale was scored on a 4-point scale. This scale is a reliable tool, and is widely used to assess patients with cancer.

To assess quality of sleep, the Chinese version of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) shall be used. This instrument has been used worldwide to assess patients' perceived sleep quality in both clinical and research. The results have supported the psychometric properties of the PSQI.

Fatigue will be measured by the Chinese version of the Brief Fatigue Inventory (BFI). The BFI was developed to measure fatigue in cancer patients. It consists of 9 items with each item scored on a 0-10 scale. The BFI measures patients' fatigue when symptoms are at their worst, least, usual and currently during the normal waking hours, with 0 indicating no fatigue, and 10 being fatigue as bad as one can imagine. Other items include fatigues interaction with patients' general activity, mood, waking ability, normal work (includes both work outside the home and housework), relations with other people, ability to think clearly, and enjoyment of life. The interference is measured with 0 being does not interfere, and 10 being completely interferes.

Actigraph will serve as an objective measure for assessing sleep parameters, such as sleep efficiency, total sleep time.