A study looking at a diet and exercise programme after treatment for womb cancer (DEUS)

This study showed that women are willing to take part in and complete a trial looking at improving diet and increasing physical activity.

The research team identified 296 women with womb cancer who would be eligible to join this study. And 60 of these women (20%) agreed to join.  The main reasons women gave for not taking part were that it wasn’t convenient, or that travel to the sessions would be difficult.

The women who took part had all been diagnosed within the last 3 years. Most had stage 1 womb cancer and all had no signs of their cancer after treatment.

They were put into one of two groups at random. Of the 60 women who joined the study:

• 6 women were not able to take part in the study
• 26 women took part in the new Shape Up following cancer treatment programme
• 28 women had follow up care as usual

The women who did the Shape Up following cancer treatment programme had group sessions once a week for 8 weeks. Each session lasted about an hour and a half. The sessions covered things such as healthy eating and physical activity.

Everyone taking part met with a researcher at the beginning, the middle and the end of the study. The researcher did various assessments including weight, blood pressure and grip strength. The results of these assessments haven’t been published yet. We plan to update this page once they are available.

The research team looked at how many women attended the group sessions and assessments. They found that:

• 24 out of 28 women (92%) who had follow up care as usual completed all the assessments
• 25 out of 26 women (96%) who did the Shape Up following cancer treatment programme completed all the assessments
• 20 out of 26 women (77%) went to the Shape Up following cancer treatment programme group sessions

They also asked the women what they thought about the sessions. The feedback was very positive, with all the women saying that they liked the group session format and length of the sessions.

The research team concluded that a larger trial looking at exercise and diet after treatment for womb cancer would be possible. They suggest thinking about a combination of group sessions and online activities to help increase the number of women willing to take part.

We have based this summary on information from the research team. The information they sent us has been reviewed by independent specialists (peer reviewed ) and published in a medical journal. The figures we quote above were provided by the trial team who did the research. We have not analysed the data ourselves.