The STAMINA trial evaluated whether a 12-month supervised aerobic and resistance exercise programme combined with dietary advice, behavioural support, and gym membership (vs. Optimised Usual Care) improved cancer-specific quality of life and fatigue in men on androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) for prostate cancer across 15 NHS trusts in England.
STAMINA lifestyle intervention was superior to Optimised Usual Care at 12 months: FACT-P improved by an adjusted mean difference of 4.5 points (97.232% CI 1.7–7.2; p=0.0004) and FACIT-F by 1.9 points (0.4–3.4; p=0.0068). Three serious adverse events occurred in the intervention group (all resolved); no treatment-related deaths.
- 97% of participants were White, limiting generalisability to more diverse populations. - Participants were aware of treatment allocation (open-label), introducing performance bias risk. - Optimised Usual Care was an active comparator (not a true no-intervention control), which may underestimate absolute benefit of supervised exercise.
Men on ADT for prostate cancer should be offered a structured supervised exercise and dietary advice programme: the STAMINA intervention produced meaningful improvements in quality of life and fatigue with a low serious adverse event rate. Clinicians now have a clear, guideline-aligned model to prescribe and integrate this intervention into routine NHS cancer care.
