Exercise to increase overall survival and reduce disease recurrence

I’d like to speak today about a great article published in 2006 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, one of the top ranking oncology journals titled “Impact of Physical Activity on Cancer Recurrence and Survival in Patients With Stage III Colon Cancer” by Jeffery Meyerhardt. The study used patients with Stage 3 Colon cancer 6 months after chemotherapy treatment.

The study first asked patients how much activity they were engaging in per week. Each type of activity has an intensity, where a higher intensity allows for more energy exertion. The terminology used is called a MET or metabolic equivalent – so when we are resting, we exert 1 MET, brisk-walking is 4.5 METs or swimming is 7 METs.   I’ve included a table from the article below:

As I’ve mentioned previously, “more is better than less and some is better than none”. This is a good place to start. Once you can get into a rhythm of regular exercise, it is time to train for longer and add in some challenging sessions.

What this study found was really interesting, and is a reason why there is more research in exercise oncology studies. Patients who engaged in at least 18 MET-hours/week (approx 6 hrs of normal pace walking or 1.5 hrs of running or 2.5 hrs of tennis per week) had a 47% improvement on disease-free survival than inactive patients. This is HUGE! The table below shows the survival rates by different levels of activity

Personally, I think this is really ground breaking, with more and more oncologists now wishing to have their patients participating in exercise studies. There is emerging hard evidence, this isnt just fluff and games. Get out there and start to move, walk, shake that body. One step at a time. You can do it.

Here is the link to the article:

http://jco.ascopubs.org/content/24/22/3535.full.pdf+html

As always, please feel free to comment, share, like, follow me, ask questions or just go out for a long walk after reading this.