The benefits of exercising when undergoing cancer treatment are to be highlighted as part of today’s World Cancer Day events.
Academics from the University of Surrey, England, will present details of their research, which includes how exercise helped people who were surgically treated for lung cancer, and men with prostate cancer, both physiologically and psychologically.
Sport and exercise scientist Joe Wainwright will also highlight the GP exercise referral service he leads at Surrey Sports Park, which sees specially trained staff provide exercise-based rehabilitation programmes for people with cancer following their surgery.
“The mind-set of ‘rest is best’ has been challenged and positive results are showing that exercise is safe and beneficial for people living with and beyond cancer,” said Dr Lisa McCann, senior lecturer at the university’s Cancer Care.
“Evidence clearly shows the benefits of exercise for people during and after treatment for cancer. Physiological benefits, including increased aerobic fitness and reduced fatigue, as well as psychological benefits such as reduced depression, have been shown in people who take part in exercise.
“In addition, the evidence suggests that sufficient levels of exercise may also reduce the risk of recurrence in some cancers.”
Professor Hardev Pandha, professor of medical oncology and consultant medical oncologist at University of Surrey, will look at the future of cancer treatment, including the ways technology can help personalise care with.
The event will also draw on Jonathan Acott’s story. The head of operations at Surrey Sports Park has survived cancer three times and he says that his fitness levels helped him to deal with the rigours of treatment.
“I was fortunate that due to my fitness and a number of other factors, my body dealt with chemotherapy and surgery a lot better than it could have done,” he said. “In particular, with my second procedure, a LHS full lateral thoracotomy which involves opening up the chest, my strength and fitness meant I was released from hospital after three days, when normal recovery time is much longer.”
Since then, he has climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, cycled from John O’Groats to Land’s End and taken part in the France Ironman event, which involved a 2.4 mile swim in open water, a 112-mile bike ride and a marathon back-to-back.
* Doctors are to launch a European Cancer Patients’ Bill of Rights today as part of events.
The Bill of Rights will be launched at the European Parliament in Strasbourg at an even led by the dean of Queen’s University, Belfast, Professor Patrick Johnston.
Professor Johnston said the Bill would set a standard for all of Europe. Details are to be published in The Lancet Oncology.
He said: “In Northern Ireland we have seen the difference that a Comprehensive Cancer Care and Research Programme can have on patient outcomes.
"Previously Northern Ireland was sitting at the bottom of the UK table for cancer survival rates and thanks to pioneering work at Queen’s, in association with the Health Service, we’re now close to the top."
* Three new drugs are to be made available for cancer patients in England, it was announced yesterday.
The drugs will be financed by the government’s Cancer Drugs Fund, which aims to support the use of expensive new treatments.
The treatments are Trastuzumab Emtansine for breast cancer, Radium-223 Dichloride for patients with prostate cancer, Dabrafenib for patients with unresectable or metastatic melanoma.
The Lancet Oncology 4 February 2014 [abstract]
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