Exercise may reduce risk of cancer returning, study shows

RTÉ News​

03-06-2025

An international cancer study has found that exercise can have huge benefits for cancer patients and can even reduce the risk of the disease returning.
The results were presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual conference in Chicago at the weekend, and published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Among those attending the expert gathering was Professor Janice Walshe, medical oncologist at St Vincent's University Hospital in Dublin.
She called the study an "incredibly strong finding", saying "it adds to the literatures that suggests that exercise is really important in keeping ourselves well."
The study examined nearly 890 patients who had high risk colon cancers (stage 2 or stage 3) and was completed in 55 locations, including in countries such as the US, France and Australia.
All patients had completed chemotherapy treatments and were put into one of two groups.
One group was given structured, supervised exercise sessions with a personal trainer and the other was just given a booklet outlining the benefits of a healthy lifestyle.
The first group did 45 to 60 minute walks three or four times a week and could do more if they chose.
Twice a month they worked with a personal trainer and then later once a month for a total of three years.
After eight years, the patients in the first group had a 37% lower risk of dying than those in the second group.
Prof Walshe said it was important to note that all these patients had already received chemotherapy.
"So, this intervention is not a substitute for drugs that we know already reduce the risk of people dying from different various cancers," Prof Walsh said.
Speaking to RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Prof Walshe said she felt that some newspaper headlines about the study were "misleading."
"I think what they're trying to say is that the magnitude of benefit we have seen with this intervention, of an exercise programme, is the type of reductions we've seen with many of our new drugs.
"But this is not a drug substitute," Prof Walshe said.
"This is on top of you receiving the best drugs in the market to reduce the risk of disease recurrence."
Prof Walshe said there is a "huge amount of Irish research" at this year's American Society of Clinical Oncology conference.
"The consultants who travel here are all networking with various research groups to bring these trials home to Ireland and obviously the best approaches in terms of managing our cancer in our Irish patients," she said.
"We already have exercise programmes ongoing in various parts of the country that are free of charge, because we believe exercise is really important in terms of, one, reducing risk of disease recurrence and, two, increasing people's confidence," she added.