MrDavid Mizrahi

Project Opportunities

Title: From the ward to playground: An active approach to childhood cancer

Summary of opportunity:

This project is seeking a PhD student with a background in exercise physiology or physiotherapy to undertake research on the benefits, role, and implementation of exercise and physical activity in childhood cancer. This research will involve delivering a randomized trial of an exercise intervention for children undergoing cancer treatment and quantitative and qualitative methods to evaluate its impact.

This PhD comes with a scholarship valued at $37,207 per annum for up to 3 years.

Research location - Office site: The University of Sydney (Edward Ford Building or Susan Wakil Health Building)

Primary Supervisor: Associate Professor Ben Smith (The Daffodil Centre, The University of Sydney)

Co-Supervisor: Dr David Mizrahi (The Daffodil Centre, The University of Sydney), and a paediatric oncologist (TBC)

Opportunity synopsis:

Physical activity, including exercise, is increasingly recommended to people with cancer during and following treatment to improve their tolerance of treatment, reduce side-effects, improve quality of life, and improve overall prognosis. Many international organisations are now endorsing delivery of exercise both during and after treatment. However, there are still numerous barriers to implementing exercise into standard cancer care. The evidence-base of ‘exercise oncology’ is more limited among childhood cancer patients compared to adults, due to much smaller sample sizes, heterogeneous cancer types and varied age groups, creating challenges in conducting exercise research. Nonetheless, it is crucial to promote physical activity in children during and following treatment, to ensure that survivors can sufficiently re-integrate their activities and health behaviours back to the level of their peers. This is crucial, as it is common for childhood cancer survivors to experience a life-time of health complications resulting from their treatment, including up to 15 times higher risk of cardiovascular disease compared with their peers. Thus, it is critical to foster health behaviours and support children with individualized programs to ensure the highest chance that children and families can participate in active lifestyles that reduce their risk and maintain the child’s quality of life.

This research has three main projects. These include:

* Study 1: A quantitative analysis of existing data related to childhood cancer survivors and physical function in the US to characterize the proportion of patients with reduced fitness, balance and strength.

* Study 2: A qualitative study of healthcare professionals, parents and childhood cancer survivors’ preferences, barriers and thoughts on implementation of exercise into childhood cancer management

* Study 3: Conduct and deliver a randomised trial of exercise for children undergoing cancer treatment in two Sydney children’s hospitals (Sydney Children’s Hospital Randwick and Children’s Hospital at Westmead), and to deliver a hybrid exercise program (face to face then virtual) to children who have completed cancer treatment in community settings via Camp Quality programs.