Exercise boosts survival rates in colon cancer patients, study shows
[June 02, 2025]
By CARLA K. JOHNSON
A three-year exercise program improved survival in colon cancer patients
and kept disease at bay, a first-of-its-kind international experiment
showed.
With the benefits rivaling some drugs, experts said cancer centers and
insurance plans should consider making exercise coaching a new standard
of care for colon cancer survivors. Until then, patients can increase
their physical activity after treatment, knowing they are doing their
part to prevent cancer from coming back.
“It’s an extremely exciting study,” said Dr. Jeffrey Meyerhardt of
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, who wasn’t involved in the research. It’s
the first randomized controlled trial to show a reduction in cancer
recurrences and improved survival linked to exercise, Meyerhardt said.
Prior evidence was based on comparing active people with sedentary
people, a type of study that can’t prove cause and effect. The new study
— conducted in Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, Israel and the
United States — compared people who were randomly selected for an
exercise program with those who instead received an educational booklet.
“This is about as high a quality of evidence as you can get,” said Dr.
Julie Gralow, chief medical officer of the American Society of Clinical
Oncology. “I love this study because it’s something I’ve been promoting
but with less strong evidence for a long time.”
The findings were featured Sunday at ASCO’s annual meeting in Chicago
and published by the New England Journal of Medicine. Academic research
groups in Canada, Australia and the U.K. funded the work.
Researchers followed 889 patients with treatable colon cancer who had
completed chemotherapy. Half were given information promoting fitness
and nutrition. The others worked with a coach, meeting every two weeks
for a year, then monthly for the next two years.
Coaches helped participants find ways to increase their physical
activity. Many people, including Terri Swain-Collins, chose to walk for
about 45 minutes several times a week.
“This is something I could do for myself to make me feel better,” said
Swain-Collins, 62, of Kingston, Ontario. Regular contact with a friendly
coach kept her motivated and accountable, she said. “I wouldn’t want to
go there and say, ‘I didn’t do anything,’ so I was always doing stuff
and making sure I got it done.”
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Terri Swain-Collins uses a treadmill in the care of physiotherapist
Alison MacDonald on May 20, 2025, at Kingston Injury Management, a
clinic in Kingston, Ontario, in Canada. (Lisa Callahan via AP)
 After eight years, the people in the
structured exercise program not only became more active than those
in the control group but also had 28% fewer cancers and 37% fewer
deaths from any cause. There were more muscle strains and other
similar problems in the exercise group.
“When we saw the results, we were just astounded,” said study
co-author Dr. Christopher Booth, a cancer doctor at Kingston Health
Sciences Centre in Kingston, Ontario.
Exercise programs can be offered for several thousand dollars per
patient, Booth said, “a remarkably affordable intervention that will
make people feel better, have fewer cancer recurrences and help them
live longer.”
Researchers collected blood from participants and will look for
clues tying exercise to cancer prevention, whether through insulin
processing or building up the immune system or something else.
Swain-Collins' coaching program ended, but she is still exercising.
She listens to music while she walks in the countryside near her
home.
That kind of behavior change can be achieved when people believe in
the benefits, when they find ways to make it fun and when there’s a
social component, said paper co-author Kerry Courneya, who studies
exercise and cancer at the University of Alberta. The new evidence
will give cancer patients a reason to stay motivated.
“Now we can say definitively exercise causes improvements in
survival,” Courneya said.
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