Table 1 Inclusion and exclusion criteria

Inclusion criteria

 • Planned to have major intra-abdominal cancer surgery, defined as >2-h duration and requiring an overnight hospital stay

 • Aged ≥ 18 years

 • English speaking

 • >2 weeks prior to surgery

 • Outpatients or in-patients with planned discharged from the hospital in less than 1 week

 • Cardiopulmonary exercise testing results of AT ≤11ml/kg/min and/or VO2 peak ≤15ml/kg/min and/or VO2 peak ≤710ml/min/m2. Patients that were unable to complete CPET were included if they had ≤70% predicted distance on the 6MWT

Exclusion criteria

 • Myocardial infarction in the last 3 months

 • Unstable angina

 • Cerebrovascular event or transient ischemic attack in the last 3 months

 • Pulmonary embolic event within 3 months

 • Existing acute or chronic deep vein thrombosis

 • Pregnancy

 • Presentation with active sepsis

 • Planned for surgery in < 2 weeks

 • Hospital inpatient, with anticipated admission >1 week

 • Unable or contra-indication to exercise

 • Unable to exercise unsupervised without appropriate supervision for safety reasons