We’ve long known that exercise can prevent and treat cardiovascular disease, among other chronic conditions. Now, a global team of researchers and practitioners is suggesting that cancer is on that list as well.
The American College of Sports Medicine convened the panel, which included representatives from the American Cancer Society, the nation's Cancer Institute, and 15 other organizations. Experts reviewed the most recent research and concluded inside a paper, published in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, that the “exercise prescription” could lower the chance of developing colon, breast, endometrial, kidney, bladder, esophageal, and stomach cancers.
Regular workouts, they noted, could also improve a patient’s quality of life during and following treatment and specifically may boost survival rates among those diagnosed with breast, prostate, or cancer of the colon.
Cancer experts have long understood the function exercise plays in preventing obesity, regulating hormone levels, and improving digestion — all factors that can contribute to the disease’s development. The report, however, marks the very first time respected public-health organizations have come together to promote an exercise-based prevention and treatment protocol for clinicians. (For info on the Moving Through Cancer initiative.)
As a guideline, researchers recommend Half an hour of moderately intense aerobic workouts 3 times a week combined with 20 to 30 minutes of strength training twice a week.
Practitioners could also customize exercise prescriptions based on a patient’s diagnosis, symptoms, and phase of treatment, says panel cochair Kathryn Schmitz, PhD, MPH, a professor of public-health sciences at Penn State College of drugs.
“Through our research, we’ve reached a point where we can give specific FITT exercise prescriptions — meaning frequency, intensity, time, and type — for specific outcomes, like quality of life, fatigue, pain, and others,” explains Schmitz. “For instance, if we’re seeing a patient with head-and-neck cancer who has a specific set of symptoms, we could give them an exercise prescription personalized for them.”
The call for patients to get moving is really a sharp departure from traditional cancer-treatment protocols, which generally focus on rest and recovery. The new protocol is backed by greater than a thousand randomized, controlled trials previously two decades and explains the gradual rise of exercise oncology during the same period.
Still, Schmitz admits she and her colleagues face a daunting task as they seek to convince practitioners — and 43 million cancer patients worldwide — that the regular workout regimen might be an effective way to conquer the disease.
“Currently, a typical person on the street will know that being active is good for preventing and treating heart disease but not for melanoma,” she notes. “You want to change that. When researchers in the 1950s built an evidence base for exercise and heart disease, there was a shift in public knowledge about that connection. It’s now here we are at that same thing to happen with exercise and cancer.”
