{"id":526359,"date":"2026-03-10T08:06:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T08:06:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/526359\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T08:06:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T08:06:07","slug":"exercise-recommended-as-part-of-treatment-for-colon-cancer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/526359\/","title":{"rendered":"Exercise recommended as part of treatment for colon cancer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Prescribing exercise as an actual treatment for cancer \u2014 not just for symptoms or side-effects \u2014 has taken a big step forward, thanks to a landmark international study co-ledby a University of Alberta researcher.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The European Society for Medical Oncology<\/a> has updated its clinical practice guidelines<\/a> to formally recommend tailored exercise as part of the standard of care for patients being treated for stages 2 and 3 colon cancer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAs far as we know, this is the first time that a non-medical intervention has been included in a treatment flow diagram by any clinical oncology group that provides practice guidelines,\u201d says Kerry Courneya<\/a>, professor and Canada Research Chair in Physical Activity and Cancer<\/a> in the Faculty of Kinesiology, Sport, and Recreation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis step helps transform exercise from a quality-of-life intervention to an essential treatment for colon cancer, alongside chemotherapy or radiation therapy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The recommendation is based on robust evidence drawn from the Canadian Cancer Trials Group CO21 Challenge<\/a> trial, a 17-year study that was the first of its kind to prove conclusively that physical activity can improve cancer survival.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The study recruited 889 colon cancer patients who had received chemotherapy for Stage 3 or high-risk Stage 2 colon cancer, to see whether a structured exercise program improved their survival. Half the group received standard health information; the other half worked with physiotherapists or kinesiologists to add 2.5 hours of moderate weekly exercise over three years.<\/p>\n

The findings revealed a significant improvement in overall survival and disease-free survival rates among the participants who were offered a structured exercise program. They had a 37 per cent lower risk of death and a 28 per cent lower risk of recurrence or developing another type of cancer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The updated treatment guidelines announced by the European Society for Medical Oncology explain how physical exercise can benefit people with Stage 2 or 3 colon cancer, and recommend that eligible patients take part in organized exercise programs. The guidelines also use a standardized scoring system to show the strength of the evidence supporting these activities.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The update to the guidelines sends an important message, Courneya believes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt means all oncology teams should be discussing exercise as a treatment for colon cancer with all eligible patients. Every patient diagnosed with Stage 2 or Stage 3 colon cancer should be informed about the important role of exercise in the treatment of their disease, and hopefully provided with a structured program to support their exercise efforts.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re hopeful that other cancer care organizations will soon follow with similar recommendations.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prescribing exercise as an actual treatment for cancer \u2014 not just for symptoms or side-effects \u2014 has taken…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":526360,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[49,48,7714,18356,31930,408,207025,84,207024,32675,3182],"class_list":["post-526359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cancer","tag-cancer-treatment","tag-colon-cancer","tag-exercise","tag-exercise-guidelines","tag-health","tag-kerry-courneya","tag-oncology","tag-physical-activity"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=526359"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526359\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/526360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=526359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=526359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=526359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}