Exercise can beat drugs to prevent cancer return

EXERCISE is as good or better than medicine at slashing the risk of cancer returning after treatment, landmark research has found.

- Hanna Geissler

Giving patients an “exercise pre-scription” with the support of a per-sonal trainer dramatically boosted their chances of survival.

People with the most common type of bowel cancer who joined the programme were 37% less likely to die within eight years.

The pioneering scheme, which cost around £2,000 to £3,000 per patient, prevented one death for every 14 people enrolled.

Study leader Dr Christopher Booth of Queen's University in Kingston, Canada, said: “The magnitude of benefit is comparable and in some cases exceeds [that] of many of our very good standard medical therapies in oncology.”

Dr Booth said it was not yet clear whether exercise would have the same benefits for those with types other than bowel cancer.