Exercise extends life for people with cancer, study shows

A first-of-its-kind study adds powerful new evidence to research showing that exercise improves cancer survival.

- NINA AGRAWAL

The study, a randomised controlled trial of nearly 900 patients at 55 cancer centres in six countries, showed that people who participated in a structured exercise programme lived longer without their cancer coming back and without the occurrence of new cancers.

Participants in the exercise programme had a 37% lower risk of dying and a 28% lower risk of recurrent or new cancer than those in the control group.

Earlier research had suggested such a benefit, but the data was from observational studies that did not prove a causal link, experts said.

"We now have definitive evidence that exercise is not just an intervention for quality of life and fitness. This is an intervention that improves survival and should be standard of care," said Dr Christopher Booth, the senior author of the paper and a professor of oncology at Queen's University in Canada.

The study, which was published in the New England Journal Of Medicine, looked at patients with Stage III or high-risk Stage II colon cancer who received standard surgery and chemotherapy treatment.