Colon cancer patients have lower overall survival than the general population. While physical activity is known to improve the survival of healthy individuals, its impact on colon cancer patients remains unclear. To investigate this, a study has analyzed data from two clinical studies involving 2,876 stage III colon cancer who were alive three years after cancer treatment, along with a matched general population from a national health database.
The pooled analysis of these two clinical trials found that colon cancer patients who engaged in less than three metabolic equivalent (MET) hours of exercise per week experienced a 3.1% lower survival rate, while those who engaged in ≥18 MET-hours/week of exercise achieved a 2.9% higher survival rate compared the matched general population. These findings suggest that physical activity may help reduce the survival gap between colon cancer…
