An observational research has indicated that physical activity can prevent, rather than just postpone, cancer recurrence in people who had previously been treated for colon cancer. The study was published in the journal, ‘British Journal of Sports Medicine’. “In this observational study of patients with stage III colon cancer, postoperative physical activity is associated with improved disease-free survival by lowering the recurrence rate within the first year of treatment, which translates into an overall survival benefit,” the researchers said. These findings could have an impact on clinical practice in the future by refining the understanding of how physical activity improves cancer survivorship in a manner relevant to tumor biology and cancer care delivery. This study may be particularly relevant to patients who seek to understand the optimal time to begin physical activity to reduce their cancer recurrence risk. With March being National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month, the timing of these findings is especially relevant for so many people around the country, and the world, who have been treated for colon cancer in the past,” said Brown, who serves as Director of the Cancer Metabolism Program at Pennington Biomedical. Brown’s father died from metastatic colorectal cancer at age 48, which has fortified his lifelong commitment to conducting innovative research to help colorectal cancer survivors live longer and healthier lives. Between June 2010 and November 2015, 1,696 patients from 654 academic and community oncology centers in the United States and Canada were enrolled in the prospective nested cohort study. Physical activity was calculated based on self-reporting during and after chemotherapy.
