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Patients had surgery to remove colon cancer followed by chemotherapy, and were then randomized either to a structured exercise program or health advice alone
The exercise program ran for 3 years, with support including mandatory coaching sessions and supervised gym visits
Exercise was mainly 'moderate-to-vigorous' aerobic exercise, at least 3 times per week
Patients in the exercise group had less cancer recurrence, (numerically) fewer new cancers, and better overall survival
Patients in the exercise group didn't lose weight - suggesting weight loss-independent benefits to the exercise
Patients had to pass a treadmill test to be eligible, so frail patients were not included
Exercise after surgery for cancer is already in many guidelines, but rarely delivered in this structured manner - and not supported (until now) by very high quality evidence
Courneya et al., in NEJM
These people were excluded before randomisation
The two groups (exercise vs. health education alone) had equivalent baseline fitness
How much of the rising colon cancer incidence might be explained by a reduction in exercise?
And this must be all
Cause mortality? What about colon cancer mortality? I assume there also was a difference?
Yes this is all-cause mortality. Colon cancer mortality is lower in the exercise group too
This study was too small for what they were studying. Bad p values and too large uncertainty to make those claims.
I'm not a cancer survivor but I'm still going to take the risk and focus more on exercise.
How much of this seems likely to transfer to other kinds of cancers?
Thanks for posting this. Was the analysis done following an Intent to Treat protocol, I hope?
This might not be as good news for survivors as it's being painted. There has always been a significant tendency to blame cancer sufferers for developing the disease in the first place and this will make it worse. We will be told we are dying because we didn't do enough exercise!
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