Exercise boosts survival rates in colon cancer patients, study shows

A three-year exercise effort improved survival in colon cancer patients and kept illness at bay a first-of-its-kind international experiment manifested With the benefits rivaling various drugs experts reported cancer centers and insurance plans should consider making exercise coaching a new standard of care for colon cancer survivors Until then patients can increase their physical activity after rehabilitation knowing they are doing their part to prevent cancer from coming back It s an extremely exciting survey revealed Dr Jeffrey Meyerhardt of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute who wasn t involved in the research It s the first randomized controlled trial to show a reduction in cancer recurrences and improved survival linked to exercise Meyerhardt mentioned Prior evidence was based on comparing current people with sedentary people a type of survey that can t prove cause and effect The new analysis conducted in Canada Australia the United Kingdom Israel and the United States compared people who were randomly selected for an exercise venture with those who instead received an educational booklet This is about as high a quality of evidence as you can get announced Dr Julie Gralow chief medicinal officer of the American Society of Clinical Oncology I love this analysis because it s something I ve been promoting but with less strong evidence for a long time The findings were featured Sunday at ASCO s annual meeting in Chicago and published by the New England Journal of Medicine Academic research groups in Canada Australia and the U K funded the work Researchers followed patients with treatable colon cancer who had completed chemotherapy Half were given information promoting fitness and nutrition The others worked with a coach meeting every two weeks for a year then monthly for the next two years Coaches helped participants find avenues to increase their physical activity A multitude of people including Terri Swain-Collins chose to walk for about minutes several times a week This is something I could do for myself to make me feel better announced Swain-Collins of Kingston Ontario Regular contact with a friendly coach kept her motivated and accountable she stated I wouldn t want to go there and say I didn t do anything so I was constantly doing stuff and making sure I got it done After eight years the people in the structured exercise venture not only became more evolving than those in the control group but also had fewer cancers and fewer deaths from any cause There were more muscle strains and other similar problems in the exercise group When we saw the results we were just astounded stated examination co-author Dr Christopher Booth a cancer specialist at Kingston Robustness Sciences Centre in Kingston Ontario Exercise programs can be offered for several thousand dollars per case Booth announced a remarkably affordable intervention that will make people feel better have fewer cancer recurrences and help them live longer Researchers collected blood from participants and will look for clues tying exercise to cancer prevention whether through insulin processing or building up the immune system or something else Swain-Collins coaching campaign ended but she is still exercising She listens to music while she walks in the countryside near her home Related Articles Clinical aid-in-dying group sues Colorado over state law s residency requirement Denver rejects million asphalt contract with Suncor because of refinery s litter Black district in Denver rallied to share flu shot experiences The Trump administration stopped the review Fights persist over oil and gas drilling near Front Range homes six years after transformation law changed permitting For plenty of in Denver s Vietnamese society the fall of Saigon years ago brought a new beginning That kind of behavior change can be achieved when people believe in the benefits when they find procedures to make it fun and when there s a social component declared paper co-author Kerry Courneya who studies exercise and cancer at the University of Alberta The new evidence will give cancer patients a reason to stay motivated Now we can say definitively exercise causes improvements in survival Courneya reported The Associated Press Wellbeing and Science Department receives promotion from the Howard Hughes Curative Institute s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation The AP is solely responsible for all content Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get medical news sent straight to your inbox