To the Editor:

We published an article "Feasibility of Exercise during Treatment for Multiple Myeloma" in vol 26, no. 5, in 2003 in Cancer Nursing. This was a small feasibility/pilot study of 24 patients with a randomized controlled design to investigate home-based exercise therapy for patients receiving high-dose chemotherapy and autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation. The effect of aerobic and strength resistance training on sleep, fatigue and mood, lean body weight, strength, and aerobic capacity was measured. Since then, we have received requests for the raw data or the means and SDs for pretest and posttest measures on each group. Because we are receiving more requests of this sort from researchers who want to include these data in a meta-analysis, we are providing the means, SDs, and percent change for each variable by group. It is not appropriate to just use means and SDs, as this is a small group of patients and the gender as well as thalidomide status would affect outcomes. Because of the small sample size, the effect of exercise on lean body weight was the only outcome measure that obtained statistical significance. However, the results suggest that aerobic and strength resistance training for patients receiving intensive treatment for multiple myeloma is safe, is feasible, and may be effective for decreasing fatigue and improving sleep. The table provides a summary of the data (see Table 1).

Table 1 No caption available.

Sincerely,

Elizabeth Ann Coleman, PhD, RNP, AOCN

Figure. No caption available.