Physical activity may help colorectal cancer survivors achieve long-term survival rates comparable to those of individuals in the general population, according to a recent study published by Brown et al in Cancer.
Background
Patients with colorectal cancer often face higher rates of premature mortality compared with individuals in the general population with matched characteristics such as age and sex.
Current health guidelines recommend 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise each week, translating to approximately 8 metabolic equivalent hours per week.
Study Methods and Results
In the study, investigators compared the data of two posttreatment trials in patients with stage III colorectal cancer, 2,875 of whom self-reported physical activity following cancer surgery and chemotherapy, with those of an age- and sex-matched general population from the National Center for Health Statistics. The investigators sought to determine whether exercise can help reduce the disparity in early colorectal cancer–related mortality. In both groups, physical activity was based on metabolic equivalent hours per week.
In the analysis of data from the first trial—known as CALGB 89803—the investigators found that among patients who had survived 3 years or more following cancer treatment who had < 3.0 metabolic equivalent hours per week had subsequent 3-year overall survival rates that were 17.1% lower compared with the matched general population. However, the patients who achieved ≥ 18.0 metabolic equivalent hours per week had just 3.5% lower subsequent 3-year overall survival rates compared with the matched general population. In the second trial, known as CALGB 80702, among the patients who survived 3 years or more, those with < 3.0 and ≥ 18.0 metabolic equivalent hours per week had subsequent 3-year overall survival rates that were 10.8% and 4.4% lower compared with the matched general population, respectively.
In pooled analyses of the two trials, among the 1,908 patients who experienced cancer recurrence–free survival by 3 years, those with < 3.0 and ≥ 18.0 metabolic equivalent hours per week had subsequent 3-year overall survival rates that were 3.1% lower and 2.9% higher compared with the matched general population, respectively. Therefore, the investigators indicated that cancer survivors who were tumor-free by 3 years and regularly exercised achieved greater subsequent survival rates compared with those seen in the matched general population.
Conclusions
“This new information can help patients with colorectal cancer understand how factors that they can control—their physical activity levels—can have a meaningful impact on their long-term prognosis,” underscored lead study author Justin C. Brown, PhD, of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center and the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center. “Also, medical and public health personnel and policymakers are always seeking new ways to communicate the benefits of a healthy lifestyle. Quantifying how physical activity may enable a patient with colorectal cancer to have a survival experience that approximates their friends and family without cancer could be a simple but powerful piece of information that can be leveraged to help everyone understand the health benefits of physical activity,” he concluded.
Disclosure: For full disclosures of the study authors, visit acsjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com.
