Exercise is generally good for you, but a new high-quality clinical trial finds that it’s so good, it can even knock back colon cancer—and, in fact, rival some chemotherapy treatments.
The rate of people who survived for five years and remained cancer-free was 80.3 percent among the exercise group.
That’s a 6.4 percentage-point survival boost over the education group, which had a 73.9 percent cancer-free survival rate.
Exercise reduced the relative risk of death by 37 percent (41 people died in the exercise group compared with 66 in the education group).
“Quite impressive” The exercise group, which had supervised exercise for the first six months of the three-year intervention, reported more exercise over the study.
In general, exercise is beneficial, but according to a recent, high-caliber clinical study, it can even reverse colon cancer and even compete with some chemotherapy treatments.
Researchers from Canada conducted a phase 3 randomized clinical trial in which they examined almost 900 patients who had received chemotherapy and surgery for colon cancer. Following those treatments, the patients were divided equally into groups that received health education alone or were coached and supervised to bulk up their regular exercise regimens over the course of three years. Researchers discovered that, over an eight-year period, the exercise group was 28 percent less likely than the health education group to die, develop new cancers, or have their colon cancer return.
The researchers found that the advantages of exercise, which were reported in the New England Journal of Medicine, became apparent after just one year and grew over time. Among those who exercised, the five-year survival rate and cancer-free status was 80.3%. Comparing that to the education group, which had a 73.9 percent cancer-free survival rate, shows a 6.4 percentage-point increase in survival. During the study’s eight-year follow-up, the exercise group’s overall survival rate (with or without cancer) was 90.3 percent, while the education group’s was 83.2 percent, a 7.1 percentage point difference. Exercise decreased the relative risk of death by 37% (the exercise group experienced 41 deaths while the education group experienced 66).
“The extent of exercise’s benefits. was comparable to many routine medication treatments that are currently approved, the researchers observed.
Nevertheless, the workout regimens that produced those notable advantages weren’t strenuous. Brisk walking and other recreational aerobic exercises were encouraged for the participants. Many participants found that adding three or four 25–30 minute jogs or three or four 45–60 minute brisk walks per week was sufficient to increase their chances.
The overall objective was to have the exercise group reach 20 MET hours per week. METs, or Metabolic Equivalents of Task, show how much energy your body is using up in comparison to when you’re sitting quietly and at rest. The researchers estimated that jogging is about 10 METs and brisk walking is about 4 METs. A participant would need to engage in five hours of brisk walking per week in order to reach 20 MET hours (e.g. 3. walks of five hours each week) or two hours of jogging each week (e.g. 3. four jogs of 30 minutes each week).
“Very good.”.
Throughout the course of the three-year intervention, the exercise group that participated in supervised exercise for the first six months reported engaging in more physical activity. By the end, the education group was averaging about 15 MET hours per week, while the exercise group was averaging over 20 MET hours. Additionally, the physical functioning and cardiorespiratory fitness scores of the exercise group were higher.
However, during the trial, the control group’s exercise increased as well thanks to the health education; on average, they began at about 10 MET hours per week. According to the researchers, these results “raise the possibility of an even more powerful effect of exercise on cancer outcomes as compared with a completely sedentary control group.”.
Although the exact mechanism through which exercise prevents cancer is still unknown, it is consistent with a large number of other observational studies that have connected exercise to improved outcomes for cancer patients. Exercise may result in “increased fluid shear stress, enhanced immune surveillance, reduced inflammation, improved insulin sensitivity, and altered microenvironment of major sites of metastases,” according to the authors, who list a number of other hypotheses.
According to the study, exercise appeared to prevent the recurrence of both distant and local colon cancers as well as the development of new cancers such as colorectal, breast, and prostate cancers.
External experts praised the study’s results. Marco Gerlinger, a specialist in gastrointestinal cancer at Queen Mary University of London, said in a statement, “This indicates that exercise has a similarly strong effect as previously shown for chemotherapy, which is really quite impressive.”. “One of the most frequent queries from patients is about ways to lower the chance that their cancer will return. Oncologists are now able to provide a very specific recommendation based on evidence. “..”.
David Sebag-Montefiore, a clinical oncologist at the University of Leeds, stated, “After 30 years of working in bowel cancer research, this is an exciting breakthrough in the step-wise improvement in cure rates.”. Because it provides the advantages of our other treatments without the well-known drawbacks, structured moderate-intensity exercise is very appealing. “.”.
