Emily Menendez

GI Oncology Now

Exercise is widely believed to improve cancer outcomes; however, there is a lack of definitive level 1 evidence to support this hypothesis.
A recent phase 3 randomized trial enrolled patients with resected colon cancer who had finished adjuvant chemotherapy in an exercise program <a href="https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2502760" target="_blank" rel="noopener">to determine if exercise can improve the primary outcome of disease-free survival (DFS)</a> in this patient population.
Researchers conducted the trial at 55 centers, where 889 patients, from 2009 to 2024, underwent randomization. Patients were either placed in an exercise group, which consisted of a structured exercise program, or a health education group, where patients received only health education materials, over a three-year period.
The study team enrolled 445 patients in the exercise group and placed 44 patients in the health education group. At a median follow-up of 7.9 years, DFS rates were significantly longer in the exercise group than the health education group (hazard ratio for disease recurrence, new primary cancer, or death, 0.72; 95% CI, 0.55 to 0.94; P=0.02).
In the exercise group, the 5-year DFS was 80.3%, versus 73.9% in the health education group (95% CI, 0.6 to 12.2). The 8-year overall survival (OS) rate was 90.3% in the exercise group and 83.2% in the health education group (95% CI, 1.8 to 12.3), supporting a longer rate of OS in patients from the exercise group (hazard ratio for death, 0.63; 95% CI, 0.43 to 0.94). Musculoskeletal adverse events occurred more often in the exercise group than in the health education group (in 18.5% vs 11.5% of patients).
Overall, the study authors found that a three-year structured exercise program provided significantly longer DFS for patients with colon cancer when initiated soon after adjuvant chemotherapy, and findings were also consistent with longer overall survival.

Exercise is widely believed to improve cancer outcomes; however, there is a lack of definitive level 1 evidence to support this hypothesis.A recent phase 3 randomized trial enrolled patients with resected colon cancer who had finished adjuvant chemotherapy in an exercise program <a href="https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2502760" target="_blank" rel="noopener">to determine if exercise can improve the primary outcome of disease-free survival (DFS)</a> in this patient population.Researchers conducted the trial at 55 centers, where 889 patients, from 2009 to 2024, underwent randomization. Patients were either placed in an exercise group, which consisted of a structured exercise program, or a health education group, where patients received only health education materials, over a three-year period.The study team enrolled 445 patients in the exercise group and placed 44 patients in the health education group. At a median follow-up of 7.9 years, DFS rates were significantly longer in the exercise group than the health education group (hazard ratio for disease recurrence, new primary cancer, or death, 0.72; 95% CI, 0.55 to 0.94; P=0.02).In the exercise group, the 5-year DFS was 80.3%, versus 73.9% in the health education group (95% CI, 0.6 to 12.2). The 8-year overall survival (OS) rate was 90.3% in the exercise group and 83.2% in the health education group (95% CI, 1.8 to 12.3), supporting a longer rate of OS in patients from the exercise group (hazard ratio for death, 0.63; 95% CI, 0.43 to 0.94). Musculoskeletal adverse events occurred more often in the exercise group than in the health education group (in 18.5% vs 11.5% of patients).Overall, the study authors found that a three-year structured exercise program provided significantly longer DFS for patients with colon cancer when initiated soon after adjuvant chemotherapy, and findings were also consistent with longer overall survival.

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Exercise After Adjuvant Chemotherapy Boosts Survival Rates in Patients With Colon Cancer

A three-year structured exercise program provided significantly longer DFS for patients with colon cancer.