Maxime Caru

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Verified

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• PhD. PhD.
• Assistant Professor｜Exercise Physiologist in Pediatric Oncology｜Research Psychologist at Pennsylvania State University

Children diagnosed with cancer are vulnerable to long-term health issues. Engaging in physical activity (PA) and adopting a healthy diet could mitigate these risks. This study aimed to understand the role of variables from the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) in adherence to healthy/unhealthy PA and nutrition scenarios. Through convenience sampling...

Background The adoption of protective health behaviors, such as physical activity (PA) and healthy nutritional practices during childhood cancer treatments should be encouraged. This study aimed to document PA levels and diet quality before and after a multidisciplinary family lifestyle intervention, and to assess whether differences in PA levels a...

Purpose Mastectomy and reconstruction are treatment components for many breast cancer patients, resulting in long-term shoulder dysfunction. Computational models specific to surgical approach would enable study of underlying mechanisms of shoulder dysfunction, but none exist. Our objectives were as follows: (1) develop and validate models represent...

Purpose As awareness increases related to young athletes diagnosed with cancer, it is essential to gain deeper insight into their backgrounds, experiences, and unique goals to effectively offer personalized care. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore the lived experiences of collegiate athletes in the USA diagnosed with cancer, reflec...

Purpose The growing number of athletes diagnosed with cancer requires a better understanding of their background, experiences, and specific goals to provide personalized care. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore the lived experiences of collegiate athletes in the United States diagnosed with cancer, reflecting on various barriers an...

An example of chemotherapy‐induced cardiotoxicity in cancer survivors is acquired long QT syndrome (aLQTS), which may cause serious yet preventable life‐threatening consequences. Our objective was to identify and characterize childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) survivors with possible aLQTS using maximal exercise testing. In this cross‐sec...

Introduction Integration of exercise into standard oncology care requires a highly skilled workforce of exercise professionals; however, competency requirements have not kept pace with advancements in the field. Therefore, the aim of this study was to obtain consensus on core competencies required for an exercise professional to be qualified to wor...

Objective The safest and most effective exercise stress tests (EST) modalities for long QT syndrome (LQTS) are currently unknown. The main objective was to explore the effects of EST on the corrected QT interval (QTc) in patients with LQTS, and to compare the effects of different EST modalities (cycle ergometer vs treadmill). Data Sources Systemat...

Childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (cALL) survivors suffer early-onset chronic diseases classically associated with aging. Normal aging is accompanied by organ dysfunctions, including immunological ones. We hypothesize that thymic immunosenescence occurs in cALL survivors and that its severity may correlate with early-onset chronic diseases. Th...

Purpose We aimed to document the acceptability (enrollment rate) and feasibility (phone call delivery rate) of implementing a behavioral PA intervention over 12 weeks, in addition to documenting its effects on patient-reported outcomes and physical functioning. This study also describes the costs of carrying out a behavioral PA intervention. A tota...

The management of cancer-related symptoms with nonpharmacological treatment has been proven effective, but more studies are still required to strengthen the scientific evidence. Given the state of the evidence, one might wonder about the perceptions of pediatric oncology experts, healthcare providers and CAM providers regarding the use of supportiv...

Exercise oncology clinical trials contribute to the advancement of our scientific knowledge and to the safety and care of patients diagnosed with cancer. Nevertheless, regulatory reviewers and committees may not be familiar with the well-documented long-term health benefits and safety of the regular practice of physical activity. Moreover, they may...

Background: There is limited evidence on the effects of aerobic and resistance training exercise interventions to improve physical function and patient-reported outcomes prior to autologous and allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT). IMPROVE-BMT was a single-site, pilot randomized controlled trial investigating the feasibility, accept...

Purpose The use of trametinib in the treatment of pediatric low-grade gliomas (PLGG) and plexiform neurofibroma (PN) is being investigated in an ongoing multicenter phase II trial (NCT03363217). Preliminary data shows potential benefits with significant response in the majority of PLGG and PN and an overall good tolerance. Moreover, possible benefi...

Purpose The aim was to provide evidence about the prevalence, incidence, and risk factors of cardiac electrical abnormalities in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) survivors. Methods We included all original studies reporting the incidence and/or prevalence of cardiac electrical abnormalities and/or risk factors associated with cardiac e...

Background: Children's exposure to chemotherapeutic agents causes several long-term adverse effects but physical activity has been evidenced to be an effective strategy to improve cardiac function. This cross-sectional study aimed to explore the association between physical activity levels, cardiorespiratory fitness, and cardiac parameters measure...

Background Long term survivors of childhood cancer have a high prevalence of chronic pain. Novel, multidisciplinary approaches to manage pain, are needed to allow for a reduction in the use of opioids for pain management. Physical activity is highly effective in managing chronic pain in children and adolescents, however, evidence about the combinat...

The characterization of cardiac mechanical properties may contribute to better understanding of doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity. Our study aims to investigate the relationship between cardiac mechanical properties, T1 and T2 relaxation times and partition coefficient. Fifty childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia survivors underwent a cardiac mag...

Introduction Individuals born preterm have reduced aerobic capacity, which could be related to impaired organ development. Their capacity to improve aerobic capacity with exercise training could therefore be limited but this remains unknown. We aimed to test an exercise intervention to improve cardiorespiratory fitness in adults born preterm. Meth...

Purpose: This scoping review describes the assessment methodologies for physical activity (PA) and physical fitness assessments used in studies focusing on adolescents and young adults (AYAs) diagnosed with cancer. Methods: A search of the literature was conducted in PubMed, CINAHL, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library following the PRISMA-ScR s...

Children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) are at high risk of developing long-term cardiometabolic complications during their survivorship. Maximal fat oxidation (MFO) is a marker during exercise of cardiometabolic health, and is associated with metabolic risk factors. Our aim was to characterize the carbohydrate and fat oxidation during exe...

Purpose Metastatic breast cancer (MBC) patients are living longer. However, symptom burden remains a significant issue. Technology-based interventions may assist. The purpose of this study was to test a virtual assistant for addressing symptoms in MBC using the Amazon Echo Show with Alexa. Methods In this partial crossover randomized trial, the im...

Purpose: Metastatic breast cancer (MBC) patients are living longer at the cost of several side effects, affecting their physical and mental health. Physical activity can help women with MBC to improve their wellbeing. Technology-based exercise interventions have shown promising outcomes; however, studies that document their benefits on health beha...

Background: There is a shortage of relevant studies interested in cardiac mechanical performance. Thus, it is clinically relevant to study the impact of cancer treatments on survivors' cardiac mechanical performance to improve our knowledge. The first objective of this study is to assess survivors' cardiac mechanical performance during a cardiopul...

The evidence to support the benefits of exercise for people living with and beyond cancer is robust. Still, exercise oncology interventions in the United States are only eligible for coverage by third-party payers within the restrictions of cancer rehabilitation settings. Without expanded coverage, access will remain highly inequitable, tending tow...

Objective: This scoping review will describe cardiac magnetic resonance imaging testing protocols used in combination with exercise (Ex-CMR) to assess cardiovascular responses. The review will document the advantages and limitations of these protocols in cardiac patients. Introduction: Ex-CMR characterizes the heart, differentiating between norm...

Children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) are treated with doxorubicin-based chemotherapy that can lead to cardiotoxicity which is a well-known cause of mortality. This study aims to characterize myocardial subtle changes induced by doxorubicin-related cardiotoxicity. We used the combination of cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging, cardi...

Background: Childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia survivors' anthracycline-induced cardiotoxicity could be prevented with good cardiorespiratory fitness levels and regular physical activity. This cross-sectional study aimed to assess the association between cardiorespiratory fitness and physical activity with cardiac magnetic resonance parameters...

Context There is no universal definition of cancer-related fatigue (CRF) specific to childhood cancer survivors, despite this population facing unique long-term side effects from their cancer. We aimed to synthesize and combine existing definitions of CRF specific to this context to inform on the necessity of a panel of experts to formulate a new d...

Background: Pain is one of the most common and distressing symptoms experienced by children and adolescents diagnosed with cancer. It is vital that children and adolescents receive adequate pain management early on in their cancer treatments to mitigate pain and cancer-related symptoms. Exercise training shows particular promise in the management...

Purpose Metastatic breast cancer (MBC) patients are living longer. However, symptom burden remains a significant issue. Technology-based interventions may be a solution. The purpose of this study was to test a virtual assistant for addressing symptoms in MBC using the Amazon Echo Show with Alexa. Methods In this partial crossover randomized trial,...

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia is the most frequent pediatric cancer. Approximately two third of survivors develop one or more health complications known as late adverse effects following their treatments. The existing measures offered to patients during their follow-up visits to the hospital are rather standardized for all childhood cancer survivors...

BACKGROUND Plexiform neurofibromas (PN) are observed in up to 50% of patients with neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1). Trametinib has been used widely to treat PN but limited data has been reported on its efficacy within a clinical trial. METHODS This ongoing multicenter phase II trial includes patients with pediatric low-grade glioma and PN. Patients...

Purpose Exercise addiction may lead to more significant physical discomfort. This study aimed to (1) explore whether athletes with a high score on the exercise addiction inventory have more pain and more injuries than those symptomatic; (2) observe whether pain intensity was lower in athletes with a high score on the exercise addiction inventory th...

Introduction: Doxorubicin leads to dose dependent cardiotoxicity in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) survivors. We investigated survivors' heart health using echocardiography and evaluated doxorubicin and dexrazoxane treatments on cardiac function. Methods: A total of 196 childhood ALL survivors were stratified (standard risk [SR], h...

To begin, we would like to thank Drs Ritt, Milani, and Stein for their recent editorial¹ and their interest in our scoping review on the influence of exercise and postural changes on ventricular repolarization in the long QT syndrome (LQTS).² Their editorial has brought complementary information that is crucial to understanding the pathophysiology...

Background: Triathletes' physiological adaptations to exercise training can have a different impact on cardiac remodeling based on the extreme exercise preparation. Moreover, cardiac remodeling might be different depending on whether triathletes have trained for many years or if they just decided to be more active. Nevertheless, data are limited i...

BACKGROUND: Plexiform neurofibromas (PN) are found in up to 50% of patients with neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1). Trametinib has been used widely to treat PN but limited data has been reported on its efficacy within a clinical trial. METHODS: This ongoing multicenter phase II trial includes patients with pediatric low-grade glioma and PN. The primar...

2042 Background: Pediatric low-grade gliomas (PLGG) are the most frequent brain tumors in children and the majority of PLGG have activation of the MAPK/ERK pathway. Plexiform neurofibromas (PN) are found in up to 50% of patients with neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1). Trametinib has been used widely to treat PLGG and PN, but no clinical trial has repo...

Background: With an aging population, rising incidence of breast cancer, improved survival rates, and obesity epidemic, there will be a growing population of older adult breast cancer survivors with obesity. This complex population, often with multimorbidity, is at risk for several poor health outcomes, including recurrence, cardiovascular disease...

Funding Acknowledgements Type of funding sources: Public grant(s) – National budget only. Main funding source(s): Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) of the Canadian Institutes ofHealth Research (CIHR), C17 Council Background Anthracycline-related cardiotoxicity is a major cause of mortality and morbidity in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia...

Current exercise recommendations make it difficult for long QT syndrome (LQTS) patients to adopt a physically active and/or athletic lifestyle. The purpose of this review is to summarize the current evidence, identify knowledge gaps, and discuss research perspectives in the field of exercise and LQTS. The first aim is to document the influence of e...

Adopting the time trial position (TTP) represents a notable improvement for cycling aerodynamic performance. Aero handlebars are designed to enable the cyclist to adopt a more aerodynamic TTP. However, it is unclear to what realistic extent the aero handlebar configuration affects the aerodynamics and physiological functioning. Thus this study aime...

Purpose: This scoping review describes and synthesizes previously reported data to document physical activity (PA) interventions in adolescents and young adult (AYA) cancer survivors and to explore whether PA interventions tested to date improve survivors' health outcomes. Methods: A search of the literature was conducted in PubMed, CINAHL, EMBA...

Doxorubicin leads to dose-dependent cardiotoxicity in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) survivors. The first aim was to propose a contour-based estimation of T1 and T2 relaxation times based on the myocardial area, while our second aim was to evaluate native T1, post-gadolinium T1 and T2 relaxation time sensitivity to detect myocardial c...

BACKGROUND Pediatric low-grade gliomas (PLGG) are the most frequent brain tumors in children. It is known that the majority of PLGG have activation of the MAPK/ERK pathway. METHODS This ongoing multicenter phase II trial includes three progressing/refractory PLGG groups: NF1 patients, KIAA1549-BRAF fusion patients and patients with other activatio...

Background and Aims: Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the most common hematological malignancy in children, with a survival rate up to 90%. However, anthracycline-related cardiotoxicity is a major cause of mortality and morbidity in this population, and early detection of cardiac dysfunction remains a challenge. This study aims to explore vent...

BACKGROUND Pediatric low-grade gliomas (PLGG) are the most frequent brain tumors in children. It is known that the majority of PLGG have activation of the MAPK/ERK pathway. METHODS This ongoing multicenter phase II trial includes three progressing/refractory PLGG groups: NF1 patients, KIAA1549-BRAF fusion patients and patients with other activatio...

Introduction Assessing health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is an increasingly important aspect of standard care in pediatric oncology. Currently, there is a gap in the availability of French questionnaires to assess the quality of life of French-speaking pediatric brain tumor (PBT) patients, which has important implications in the care of this p...

Cardiopulmonary exercise tests (CPET) focusing on analyses of heart rate (HR) responses and chronotropic incompetence (CI) could provide early information about treatment’s negative cardiac effects. We examined childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) survivors’ HR response during maximal CPET and identified survivors with CI. A total of 250 ch...

Objective: This scoping review will aim to identify the domains contributing to cancer-related fatigue in childhood cancer survivors and will explore whether non-pharmacological interventions have addressed these domains. This information will help to better define cancer-related fatigue, identify knowledge gaps in the literature, and direct futur...

Background The theory of planned behavior (TPB) is used to document children’s health behaviors linked to their physical activity. The TPB model and its components have been applied to comprehend the adoption of physical activity along informational and motivational parameters. Thus, this exploratory study aims to assess the evolution of children’s...

PurposeThe purpose of this study was to demonstrate if childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) survivors exposed to chemotherapy (i.e., doxorubicin) are able to achieve a safe maximal cardiopulmonary exercise test (CPET).MethodsA total of 250 childhood ALL survivors were eligible to undergo a CPET on ergocycle. Analyses were performed in 216 s...

Preparation for an endurance event among amateur athletes requires a major commitment on their part. Knowing amateur athletes' psychological characteristics during a training period should be a priority for coaches and athletes. The aim of our longitudinal study was to characterize the psychological profile of amateur athletes over a training perio...

BACKGROUND Pediatric low-grade gliomas (PLGG) are the most frequent brain tumors in children. It is now known that the majority of PLGG have activation of the MAPK/ERK pathway. We hypothesize that we will observe responses in recurrent/refractory PLGG treated with trametinib. METHODS This is a multicenter phase II including three progressing/refra...

BACKGROUND Pediatric low-grade gliomas (PLGG) are the most frequent brain tumors in children. It is known that the majority of PLGG have activation of the MAPK/ERK pathway. METHODS This multicenter phase II included three progressing/refractory PLGG groups: NF1 patients, KIAA1549-BRAF fusion patients and patients with other activation of the MAPK/...

Background The theory of planned behavior (TPB) model and its components have been applied to comprehend the adoption of physical activity along with informational and motivational parameters. Thus, the first aim of this exploratory study was to explore the evolution of children’s physical activity levels over a supervised physical activity program...

Purpose: Cancer is one of the leading causes of death in the world. The physiologic and psychological benefits of physical activity have been shown in children with cancer. However, almost one in two cancer patients do not follow the physical activity guidelines. The aim of this study will be to assess the feasibility of a physical activity program...

Purpose: The six-minute walk test (6MWT) is the most widely used test to assess the functional capacity of cancer patients. However, it is reported that the actual equations cannot accurately predict oxygen uptake (VO2 value) or walk distance (6MWD) in cancer survivors. Because of the importance for clinicians and physiologists to have a validated...

Purpose: Cancer survivors’ exposure to chemotherapeutic agents leads to multiple long-term side effects with a decrease in their cardiorespiratory fitness. The first aim was to determine whether cardiorespiratory fitness and physical activity levels were lower among survivors than healthy Canadians, while the second aim was to report associations b...

Background/rationale or Objectives/purpose: The theory of planned behavior (TPB) model and its components have been applied to comprehend the adoption of physical activity along informational and motivational parameters. The first aim of this study was to explore the evolution of children’s physical activity levels (MVLPA) and children’s physical a...

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of exercise training on ventricular repolarization dynamicity and heart rate variability in chronic heart failure patients. Design: A total of 22 chronic heart failure patients with reduced ejection fraction in sinus rhythm were included in the study. The patients were in NYHA classes...

Over the years, exercise has become increasingly important in patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI). However, AMI patients need to be closely monitored since they maintain cardiovascular disease risks, such as ventricular repolarization abnormalities in electrocardiograms during exercise and rest. A recent study showed the need to focus o...

Introduction. Most childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) survivors develop chronic treatment-related adverse effects several years after the end of the treatment. Regular physical activity and a good cardiorespiratory fitness can decrease the risks of neurological disturbances and increase cognitive function scores. The aim of this study was...

Background Cancer is one of the leading causes of death in the world. The physiological and psychological benefits of physical activity have been shown in children with cancer. However, almost one in two cancer patients do not follow the physical activity guidelines. The aim of this study will be to assess the feasibility of a physical activity pro...