Structured exercise associated with better cancer outcomes

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By Emma Wilkinson and Storm Newton, PA Media

Cancer patients who take part in structured exercise programmes alongside their normal care could live longer and have more time disease-free, a large review of the evidence has concluded.

Survival and recurrence risk benefits were strongest in early stage disease, in those who did aerobic exercise or aerobic exercise plus strength training, and in those who managed to keep up their exercise routines, the researchers reported.

The analysis of findings from 21 clinical trials, suggest exercise may have benefits that “extend beyond its traditional role in improving quality of life”, they concluded in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

Data from more than 8,400 people aged 47 to 64 years from Europe, North America, Australia and Asia was included in the meta-analysis, with the most common cancer types being breast, bowel and pancreatic.

Patients who followed an exercise programme as part of their care were 23% less likely to die, and 17% less likely to have their cancer return before dying compared with people who did not exercise.