Exercise boosts survival rates in colon cancer patients, study shows

A three-year exercise program improved survival in colon cancer patients and kept the disease at bay, a first-of-its-kind international experiment showed. With the benefits rivaling some drugs, experts said 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 treatment, knowing they are doing their part to prevent cancer from coming back. “It’s an extremely exciting study,” said 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 said. Prior evidence was based on comparing active people with sedentary people, a type of study that can’t prove cause and effect. The new study—conducted in Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, Israel and the United States—compared people who were randomly selected for an exercise program with those who instead received an educational booklet. “This is about as high a quality of evidence as you can get,” said Dr. Julie Gralow, chief medical officer of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). “I love this study because it's something I've been promoting but with less strong evidence for a long time.” The findings were featured 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 889 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 ways to increase their physical activity. After eight years, the people in the structured exercise program not only became more active than those in the control group but also had 28% fewer cancers and 37% fewer deaths from any cause. There were more muscle strains and other similar problems in the exercise group. This article was provided by The Associated Press.