Exercise is generally positive, regardless of our condition. However, a new study has concluded that it is so beneficial that it can help combat colon cancer – and even “rival” chemotherapy treatments.
The conclusion results from a clinical trial that analyzed patients who already had the Stage 3 From colon cancer, the last stage before cancer spreads to another organ.
The study was conducted by researchers from Canada who analyzed 900 people who had been subjected to surgery and chemotherapy to the cancer of the colon.
After the treatments, the sick were divided into 2 groups; one increased its routines of regular exercise in a three -year program that included guidance and supervision, the other received only Information and guidelines about health practices to be adopted.
The researchers found that the group that practiced exercise had a 28% lower recurrence risk Cancer, development of new cancers or death to eight years, compared to the group that received health guidelines.
The published earlier this month in New England Journal of Medicineshowed that the patients who practiced exercise had better results after only one yearand that the results continued to improve over time.
The “Exercise” group presented a 5 -year survival rate No cancer of 80.3% – an increase of 6.4% compared to the “education” group, which had a 73.9% survival rate.
A global survival ratewith or without cancer, during the eight years of study monitoring, it was 90.3% in the exercise group, compared to 83.2% in the education group – a difference of 7.1 percentage points.
Exercise reduced the relative risk of death by 37% (41 people died in the exercise group compared to 66 in the education group). “The magnitude of the benefit of the exercise was similar to many medical treatments which are currently approved, ”said the investigators.
According to the exercise routines that allowed these substantial benefits They were not very demanding. Participants were trained to perform any recreational aerobic exercise they liked, including a quick walk.
The addition of Fast walks from 45 to 60 minutes three or four times a week, or three or four 25 to 30 minutesIt was sufficient for many patients to get improvements to their probabilities.
In general, the goal was to get the exercise group to exceed 20 hours a week. Mets are task metabolic equivalents, which represent the amount of energy your body is burning compared to your resting state.
According to the investigators, a quick walk corresponds to about four met and the gaming to about 10 met. To arrive at 8 pm met a week, a participant would have to do Five hours of fast walking per week or run two hours a week.
It is not totally clear How does exercise maintain the cancers, but the results are consistent with numerous observational studies that have associated higher physical activity at better cancer survival rates.
Investigators have several hypotheses, including that exercise can cause “increased fluid shear stressreinforced immune surveillance, reducing inflammation, improving insulin sensitivity and a change in the microenvironment of the main metastases. ”
“This indicates that exercise has an effect as strong as the one previously demonstrated by chemotherapy, What is really impressive”, MARCO GERLINGERspecialist in Digestive Tube Cancer of Queen Mary University of London, quoted by ARS Technica.
“One of the most common questions of patients is What can to reduce the risk of your cancer back. Oncologists can now make a very clear recommendation based on evidence, ”says Gerlinger.
“Having worked on investigating the bowel cancer for 30 years, this is an exciting advance in the gradual improvement of healing rates,” he says in his turn David Sebag-Montefioreoncologist at the University of Leeds.
“The great attraction of a structured exercise of moderate intensity is that offers benefits without the disadvantage of side effects well known to our other treatments. ” says Sebag-Montefiore.
