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Moderate Exercise Reduces Risk of Colon Cancer Recurrence: Presented at ASCO

By Charlene Laino

ORLANDO, FL -- May 20, 2005 -- Regular exercise can improve disease-free survival rates in patients with stage III colon cancer, results of a prospective study suggest.

Jeffrey A. Meyerhardt, MD, MPH, assistant professor of medicine, Harvard Medical School, and medical oncologist, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts, reported the finding here on May 18^th at the American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting (ASCO).

Patients in the study were significantly less likely to die or have disease recurrence if they exercised the equivalent of a brisk, 1-hour walk 6 times a week, compared with those who had little or no exercise, Dr. Meyerhardt said.

Previous studies showed that physical activity can lower the risk of developing colon cancer, leading the researchers to hypothesize that exercise might also benefit patients who already have the disease, he explained.

The study included 832 patients with stage III colon cancer enrolled in a randomized trial of postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy. The patients had survived at least 1 year postsurgery. The researchers used this enrollment criterion because they thought "physical activity is a little hard right after surgery," he said.

Four months after surgical resection and midway through adjuvant therapy, patients completed a detailed survey of diet and lifestyle; the questionnaire was administered again 6 months after completion of adjuvant therapy.

The reported time spent at each activity per week was multiplied by its typical energy expenditure requirements expressed in metabolic equivalents (METs). This allowed levels of physical activity to be reflected in terms of MET-hours-per-week scores.

A median of 2.7 years after completion of the second questionnaire, disease-free survival was 49% higher in patients who engaged in 18 to 27 MET-hours/week of physical activity, compared with those who exercised less than 3 MET-hours/week. "This is equivalent to a 2 to 3 mph walk a day, 6 days a week, running fast 2 times a week or playing tennis 3 times a week," Dr. Meyerhardt said.

After adjusting for age, gender, baseline performance status, node stage, tumor stage, bowel obstruction and perforation, level of differentiation, treatment arm, and body mass index, the 95% confidence interval was.26 to.97, with a P value of.01 for the trend compared with those at the lowest levels of physical activity, Dr. Meyerhardt said.

"Subgroups analysis showed the results to be consistent by age, gender, baseline performance status, body mass index, and number of positive nodes," he said.

Increased physical activity appears to be associated with better disease-free survival and overall survival among patients with stage III colon cancer, the researchers concluded.


[Presentation title: The Impact of Physical Activity on Patients With Stage III Colon Cancer: Findings From Intergroup Trial CALGB 89803. Abstract 3534]

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