Molassiotis, A., Charalambous, A., Taylor, P., Stamataki, Z., & Summers, Y. (2015). The effect of resistance inspiratory muscle training in the management of breathlessness in patients with thoracic malignancies: A feasibility randomised trial. Supportive Care in Cancer, 23, 1637–1645.
To assess the feasibility of inspiratory muscle training (IMT) in the lung cancer population and to explore changes in outcomes
Patients were randomized to either the standard care group or the intervention group, which received standard care and intervention of IMT, consisting of two supervised sessions, then home self-delivery of IMT with provided device (pressure threshold device) in five sessions weekly for 12 weeks of 30 minutes per day divided over two sessions. Assessments were completed at 4, 8, and 12 weeks.
This trial showed that IMT is feasible and acceptable for patients with lung cancer. In comparison of IMT group and control group, several outcomes, including worst breathlessness, average breathlessness, distress from breathlessness, ability to cope with breathlessness, satisfaction with management of breathlessness, fatigue, and depression and anxiety had improved for the IMT group over the control group. No differences were seen in spirometry and breathlessness between groups.
IMT is feasible and acceptable for patients with lung cancer and improved outcomes were seen for patients receiving IMT. However, this trial had a small sample size, so it cannot adequately draw solid conclusions regarding outcomes for patients with lung cancer undergoing IMT for breathlessness. Larger trials should be conducted to evaluate this.
IMT may be of benefit for the treatment of breathlessness, but data are too weak due to the small sample size to strongly recommend IMT. In addition, the study included only patients with lung cancer. This study is inadequately powered to draw conclusions about outcomes and does not address any patients experiencing breathlessness from nonthoracic malignancies.