Exercise boosts survival rates in colon cancer patients, study finds

Euronews

4 days ago

A three-year exercise programme improved survival in colon cancer patients and kept disease at bay, a first-of-its-kind international experiment has shown.
With the benefits rivaling some drugs, experts said cancer centres and insurance plans should consider making exercise coaching a new standard of care for colon cancer survivors.
Until then, patients can increase their physical activity after treatment, knowing they are doing their part to prevent cancer from coming back.
"It's an extremely exciting study," said Dr Jeffrey Meyerhardt of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, who wasn't involved in the research.
It's the first randomised controlled trial to show a reduction in cancer recurrences and improved survival linked to exercise, Meyerhardt said.
Prior evidence was based on comparing active people with sedentary people, a type of study that can't prove cause and effect.
The new study – conducted in Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, Israel, and the United States – compared people who were randomly selected for an exercise programme with those who instead received an educational booklet.
"This is about as high a quality of evidence as you can get," said Dr Julie Gralow, chief medical officer of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO).
"I love this study because it's something I've been promoting but with less strong evidence for a long time".
The findings were featured Sunday at ASCO's annual meeting in Chicago and published by the New England Journal of Medicine. Academic research groups in Canada, Australia, and the UK funded the work.
Researchers followed 889 patients with treatable colon cancer who had completed chemotherapy. Half were given information promoting fitness and nutrition.
The others worked with a coach, meeting every two weeks for a year, then monthly for the next two years.
Coaches helped participants find ways to increase their physical activity. Many people, including Terri Swain-Collins, chose to walk for about 45 minutes several times a week.
"This is something I could do for myself to make me feel better," said Swain-Collins, a 62-year-old from Kingston, a city in the Canadian province of Ontario.
Regular contact with a friendly coach kept her motivated and accountable, she said.
"I wouldn't want to go there and say, 'I didn't do anything,' so I was always doing stuff and making sure I got it done," Swain-Collins said.
After eight years, the people in the structured exercise programme not only became more active than those in the control group, but also had 28 per cent fewer cancers and 37 per cent fewer deaths from any cause.
There were also more muscle strains and other similar problems in the exercise group.
"When we saw the results, we were just astounded," said study co-author Dr Christopher Booth, a cancer doctor at Kingston Health Sciences Centre in Ontario.
Exercise programmes can be offered for several thousand dollars per patient, Booth said, "a remarkably affordable intervention that will make people feel better, have fewer cancer recurrence, and help them live longer".
Researchers collected blood from participants and will look for clues tying exercise to cancer prevention, whether through insulin processing or building up the immune system or something else.
Swain-Collins' coaching programme ended, but she is still exercising. She listens to music while she walks in the countryside near her home.
That kind of behaviour change can be achieved when people believe in the benefits, when they find ways to make it fun, and when there's a social component, said paper co-author Kerry Courneya, who studies exercise and cancer at the University of Alberta in Canada.
The new evidence, he said, will give cancer patients a reason to stay motivated.
"Now we can say, definitively, exercise causes improvements in survival," Courneya said.
A ban on disposable vapes came into force across the United Kingdom on Sunday as the British government aims to stem their use by children, reduce litter, and prevent the leaking of harmful chemicals into the environment.
The ban makes it illegal for any retailer – online or in-store – to sell vapes, whether they contain nicotine or not. They will still be able to sell reusable vapes.
The crackdown follows the soaring use of disposable vapes in schools and a rising tide of trash as users dispose of the vapes.
It is estimated that as many as 5 million disposable vapes are thrown in bins or littered every week across the UK, rather than being recycled.
A number of countries are seeking to regulate the vape market, which has grown exponentially over the past decade or so.
Australia outlawed the sale of vapes outside pharmacies last year in some of the world's toughest restrictions on electronic cigarettes, while Belgium became the first European country to ban the use of disposable vapes at the start of this year.
California has been at the forefront of bringing in new regulations in the United States.
The UK's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said usage among young people remained too high, and the ban would "put an end to their alarming rise in school playgrounds and the avalanche of rubbish flooding the nation's streets".
Also known as single-use vapes, disposable vapes are non-refillable and unable to be recharged, and are typically thrown away with general waste or just thrown on the street.
Even when they are recycled, they need to be taken apart by hand, while their batteries are a fire risk to recycling facilities and can leak harmful chemicals into the environment and potentially harm wildlife.
Businesses were given six months to prepare for the change by selling any existing stock.
Rogue traders who continue to sell them risk a fine of £200 (€239) in the first instance, followed by an unlimited fine or jail time for repeat offending.
The UK Vaping Industry Association said its members had moved quickly to comply with the June 1 deadline, but warned of "serious unintended consequences" emanating from too much regulation.
"We are concerned that this ban will encourage former smokers who have already transitioned from cigarettes, which kill 220 people every day in the UK, to return to combustible tobacco or opt for unregulated vapes," said its director general, John Dunne.
Separately, the British government is legislating to potentially restrict the packaging, marketing and flavours of e-cigarettes.