On 3 April in the Health Research Institute Hospital La Fe (IIS La Fe) the presentation of the Chair of Physical Exercise and Childhood Cancer was celebrated, a pioneer project that has reunited experts from different disciplines to explore the benefits of exercise and the psychosocial support in the child oncologic treatment.
The event has presented the integral focus of a programme of 12 weeks of physical exercise combined with psychosocial interventions that tries to reduce the physical and psychological sequels long-term of the medical childhood cancer treatment. With a collaboration model between the AECC, the IIS La Fe, the Universitat de València (UV) and the Universitat Jaume I (UJI) we pretend to offer a more complete, supervised and personalised treatment for the patients and their relatives.
The workshop has counted with the participation of Adela Cañete, head of the Unidad de Oncología Pediátrica in the Hospital La Fe; Pilar Ens, scientific director of the IIS La Fe; Antonio Llombart, vice-president of the AECC Valencia; and Tomás Trénor, president of the AECC Valencia. Furthermore, in representation of each discipline, there had been different exhibitions:
- Julia Balaguer Guill (Paediatric Oncohaematology specialist, IIS La Fe), has explained how the Chair represents a collaborative network model between different institutions and has detailed the goals of the project.
- Inmaculada Aparicio Aparicio (Research Group in Sports Biomechanics of the Faculty of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences, UV), she has presented the benefits of supervised and personalised physical exercise for children in their oncologic treatment.
- Eladio J. Collado Boira (dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences of the UJI), has exhibited his work in adults with the Cátedra de Actividad Física y Oncología José Soriano Ramos UJI.
- Iñaki Posada Tamayo (psychologist of the AECC), has spoken about the importance of a psychological support in the treatment of childhood cancer, underlining the value of psycho-oncology as an integral part of assistance to patients.
The Chair, that started in October 2024 and will extend to 2027, will be done in three phases for each child: pre-intervention evaluation, 12 week intervention and evaluation post-intervention. During the process, many physiologic, biomechanical and psychological parameters of the patients to evaluate the impact of the intervention in their health and well-being will be measured.
