The conclusions from this study are credible and consistent with other studies showing the benefit of a good diet and exercise for men on ADT. But there are limitations in the experiment design.
The study involved a complex intervention, i.e., including keeping a food diary and adhering to a personalized exercise program, which could be done at home, alone or with one's partner. Participants in the experimental group got regular phone calls to monitor their progress and compliance. The control group didn’t get that extra attention.
Participants in the intervention group showed overall improvement in terms of their body composition, as well as their performance on a six minute walk test. The problem with the study was that the intervention and control groups were not comparable at the outset. For whatever reason, there were significantly more men in the intervention group who were married, had on average more education, and performed better in the six minute walk test at baseline. One's level of education is known to correlate with better adherence to lifestyle interventions. Having a partner in life (for instance, to cook, eat, and exercise with) is also known to lead to better health-related quality of life.
There were only 47 men in each arm of the study. Hopefully the researchers will follow-up with a better-controlled experiment and a larger sample size to confirm the efficacy of their physical activity in dietary intervention.
O'Neill RF, Haseen F, Murray LJ, O'Sullivan JM, Cantwell MM. 2015. A randomised controlled trial to evaluate the efficacy of a 6-month dietary and physical activity intervention for patients receiving androgen deprivation therapy for prostate cancer. J Cancer Surviv 9(3):431-440. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20704726