Cancer: How movement extends the life of patients

For our ancestors, sport was nothing more than a necessary evil. If you wanted to live, you had to chase animals, pick fruits from trees and drag the prey into your own cave. But when the modern person tried to reduce movement to a minimum, it became clear that even if you no longer have to run after your food, sport remains vital. Not only does humans live longer and healthier if they stay active. Sport helps him even when his life is already on the silk thread.

In a new one that was just presented on the point of view, researchers showed that women and men who are treated for colon cancer not only rarely get cancer again with a movement program, and less of them also die from them.

And this is how the investigation started: The patients who took part in the study had already completed the treatment of their colon cancer, including surgery and chemotherapy, the risk of cancer could still be returned. The researchers therefore wanted to find out whether a structured movement program would help them stay healthy.

They divided the almost 900 participating patients in six countries into two groups in accordance with the random principle. One received educational material to promote physical activity and healthy nutrition. The patients of the treatment group were also supported by a “consultant for physical activity” – a mixture of personal trainers and life coach – for three years.

In the first six months, the participants received personal advice every week. Over time, this was reduced to one session per month. The aim was to increase the physical activity to an equivalent of 30-minute jogging rounds every second day. You could also achieve this by cycling, jogging, swimming or kayak.

Then it was evaluated. It was shown that people who had participated in the structured training program lived longer without their cancer returning and without new cancer. They had a 37 percent lower risk of death and a 28 percent lower risk of falling back to colon cancer or another tumor than the participants in the control group.

After five years, around 80 percent of the people who completed a structured training program were cancer -free, compared to around 74 percent of those who had received reconnaissance brochures. After eight years, the training program had prevented one death per 14 people who had participated in the study.

The biological mechanisms that explain why sport has a direct influence on cancer are still largely unknown. According to the crab experts, the anti -inflammatory effect of sport could play an important role. It is clear: “For an intervention that is not a medication, movement offers remarkable advantages for the patients,” said British doctor and scientist Charles Swanton.

According to the World Health Organization, colon cancer is the third most common cancer worldwide – it accounts for around ten percent of all cancer cases – and is the second most common cause of cancer -related deaths worldwide.

“One of the most common questions we get as oncologists from our patients is: ‘What else can I do to improve my forecast?’,” Says Christopher Booth from the Cancer Research Institute at Queen’s University in Canada.

“These results now give us a clear answer: A training program with a personal trainer reduces the risk of a new occurrence of cancer or a new cancer, makes them feel better and helps them live longer,” said Booth, who is also the main author of the study, which was published in New England Journal of Medicine. Science has already shown that movement can reduce the risk of different types of cancer. Researchers assume that intestinal cancer cases could be avoided by moving more.

From Nord-Belfast is one of the participants who participated in the program. The 69-year-old woman is still doing sports: “I have never been to a gym before, but when I was shown how to use the devices and do the exercises, I thought it was great.”

Almost five years have passed since her cancer diagnosis. “When I meet someone, I tell him that I am fine. Participation in the study helped me so much – I am stronger, fitter and my fear has become less. I never thought that at the age of 69 I would be able to do all of this – I’m overjoyed.”

For Pamela Kunz, from the Yale School of Medicine, the results should change the care of all patients: “Movement as an intervention is a matter of course and should be introduced on a broad basis,” said Kunz.