Table 1 Prospective Studies on resistance training in patients with head and neck cancer

McNeely et al. 2008

52 HNSCC patients after neck dissection

12 week supervised PRT (2-3x/week) versus standard of care.

Adherence: 95 % for PRT group and 87 % for control group.

Outcomes: PRT was superior to standard of care for improving shoulder pain and disability (p < 0.001), upper extremity strength (p < 0.001), and upper extremity endurance (p < 0.039)

Lonbro, DAHANCA 25A 2013

30 HNSCC patients after curative radiotherapy +/- chemotherapy

12 week partially supervised PRT (2-3x/week) with or without a seven day creatinine load

Adherence: 97 % in those that completed the study with a completion rate of 70 %

Outcomes: Addition of creatinine to PRT did not improve lean body mass (p = 0.07). Regardless of nutritional intervention, improvement noted after PRT in lean body mass and maximal isometric and isokinetic muscle strength.

Lonbro, DAHANCA 25B 2013

41 HNSCC patients after curative radiotherapy +/- chemotherapy

24 week study of early versus delayed 12 week supervised PRT (2-3x/week).

Adherence: Not reported

Outcomes: Increase in lean body mass by 4.3 % and 4.2 % in early versus delayed PRT. Improvement larger than change after self-chosen physical activity (p < 0.005). Regardless of PRT start-up time, the odds ratio of increasing LBM by more than 4 % after PRT was 6.26 (p < 0.05).

Rogers et al. 2013

15 HNSCC patients during radiation therapy

12 week supervised PRT (2x/week) for 6 weeks then at home PRT (2x/week) versus standard of care.

Adherence: 83 % for supervised exercise and 62 % for exercise telephone counseling.

Outcomes: PRT improved in fatigue and quality of life at 6 weeks versus control. Chair rise time (seconds) improved at 6 and 12 weeks in PRT arm versus standard of care (-1.6 vs 0.4 respectively, p < 0.05).

Samuel et al. 2013

48 HNSCC patients during CRT

6 week supervised general exercise program (5-6x/week) versus routine physical activity encouragement.

Adherence: not recorded

Outcomes: Increased 6MWD in theintervention arm, decreased in the control arm with a 138 m difference between groups (p < 0.001).

Capozzi et al. 2016

60 newly diagnosed HNSCC patients during RT or CRT

24 week study of immediate versus delayed with a 12 week supervised PRT (2x/week) and nutrition intervention.

Adherence: 45.2 % in immediate group and 61.5 % in delayed group.

Outcomes: No difference in lean body mass or percentage body fat at 24 weeks.