A three-year exercise program improved survival rates in colon cancer patients and kept the disease at bay, a first-of-its-kind international experiment showed.
With the benefits rivaling some drugs, experts said cancer centers and insurance plans should consider making exercise coaching a new standard of care for colon cancer survivors. Until then, patients can increase their physical activity after treatment, knowing they are doing their part to prevent cancer from coming back.
“It’s an extremely exciting study,” said Dr. Jeffrey Meyerhardt of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, who wasn’t involved in the research. It’s the first randomized controlled trial to show how exercise can help cancer survivors, Meyerhardt said.
Prior evidence was based on comparing active people with sedentary people, a type of study that can’t prove cause and effect. The new study — conducted in Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, Israel and the United States — compared people who were randomly selected for an exercise program with those who instead received an educational booklet.
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“This is about as high a quality of evidence as you can get,” said Dr. Julie Gralow, chief medical officer of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. “I love this study because it’s something I’ve been promoting but with less strong evidence for a long time.”
The findings were featured Sunday at ASCO’s annual meeting in Chicago and published by the New England Journal of Medicine. Academic research groups in Canada, Australia and the U.K. funded the work.
Researchers followed 889 patients with treatable colon cancer who had completed chemotherapy. Half were given information promoting fitness and nutrition. The others worked with a coach, meeting every two weeks for a year, then monthly for the next two years.
Terri Swain-Collins uses a treadmill in the care of physiotherapist Alison MacDonald on May 20, 2025, at Kingston Injury Management, a clinic in Kingston, Ontario, in Canada.
Coaches helped participants find ways to increase their physical activity. Many people, including Terri Swain-Collins, chose to walk for about 45 minutes several times a week.
“This is something I could do for myself to make me feel better,” said Swain-Collins, 62, of Kingston, Ontario. Regular contact with a friendly coach kept her motivated and accountable, she said. “I wouldn’t want to go there and say, ‘I didn’t do anything,’ so I was always doing stuff and making sure I got it done.”
After eight years, the people in the structured exercise program not only became more active than those in the control group but also had 28% fewer cancers and 37% fewer deaths from any cause. There were more muscle strains and other similar problems in the exercise group.
“When we saw the results, we were just astounded,” said study co-author Dr. Christopher Booth, a cancer doctor at Kingston Health Sciences Centre in Kingston, Ontario.
Exercise programs can be offered for several thousand dollars per patient, Booth said, “a remarkably affordable intervention that will make people feel better, have fewer cancer recurrences and help them live longer.”
Researchers collected blood from participants and will look for clues tying exercise to cancer prevention, whether through insulin processing or building up the immune system or something else.
Swain-Collins' coaching program ended, but she is still exercising. She listens to music while she walks in the countryside near her home.
That kind of behavior change can be achieved when people believe in the benefits, when they find ways to make it fun and when there’s a social component, said paper co-author Kerry Courneya, who studies exercise and cancer at the University of Alberta. The new evidence will give cancer patients a reason to stay motivated.
“Now we can say definitively exercise causes improvements in survival,” Courneya said.
Group exercise may be even better for you than solo workouts—here's why
Group exercise may be even better for you than solo workouts—here's why
Group exercise is very popular: Nearly 40% of regular exercisers participate in group fitness classes. In advance of the coronavirus pandemic, the American College of Sports Medicine predicted that group fitness would be —for good reason.
Exercise has clear benefits for , and the side effects—think lowered blood pressure, improved glycemic control, better sleep—are overwhelmingly positive. And may have particularly beneficial effects.
If you've been considering joining an online group class—or been encouraged to by others—L. Alison Phillips, a psychology professor at Iowa State University, and Jacob Meyer, an Iowa State kinesiology professor, share research-based reasons why that might be a great idea for .
Everyone Else Is Doing It, Why Not You?
Other people . That is, they can affect how you feel about exercising, which is critical for determining whether you do it or not. If you get to know others who exercise regularly, you start to perceive exercise as .
know that people are influenced by those around them in a few different ways. Knowing other people who lift weights or take a spin class —your thoughts and feelings—about exercise.
It also molds what are called social norms: your perceptions about whether other people exercise and if you think you should.
Fun With Friends Is Motivating
Even if you've already decided exercising is something you want to do and intend to do, there are that can determine if you are successful at . Exercising with others can boost those motivations.
The highest quality or type of motivation is called —you're doing something because the behavior itself is enjoyable, satisfying, or both. If you enjoy exercise and not just the positive feelings you get after you've worked out, you are more likely to stick with it. , even if the activity itself is difficult or otherwise not something you love. Group exercise can turn working out into a fun social activity, which could lead to you continuing to do it.
can also . Any kind of exercise can help someone feel in control of their choices, but the social support from a group can . Similarly, group exercise can increase feelings of mastery— thanks to growing competence, for example, at spinning or step aerobics. And it will certainly increase your connectedness with others. People fulfilling behaviors in the long term and they promote mental health—a win-win.
In contrast, exercise feels less compelling if your motivation is extrinsic—for instance, someone else is telling you to exercise, or you're primarily doing it to lose weight. In this case, sticking to a fitness regimen becomes less likely and less rewarding. Similarly, if the extrinsic factors go away—maybe you lose weight or decide you don't care anymore about the number on your scale—then the motivation to exercise likely disappears as well.
Buddies Help Make It a Habit
Exercising with others can make the whole process easier and more habitual. Friends can be your cue as well as your reward for exercising.
First, you look to other people to learn how to do things, and it's a human tendency to model your behavior after those you see around you. When you , it can start to —psychologists call this belief in yourself self-efficacy. You may then after others', too. This is very important for starting a new exercise routine, because how much you believe in your own ability to take on that yoga class or try some new equipment at the gym will predict whether you give it a shot.
Second, friends can remove some of the barriers to exercising. A workout buddy can provide reminders and encouragement to exercise, hold you accountable, and even help with tangible logistics, like giving you a ride or sending links for Zoom class opportunities.
And don't discount the competitive urge. A little friendly can also boost the intensity of your effort.
that you don't have to spend a lot of energy forcing yourself to do—they're your default, preferred behavior. You do them consistently and frequently without using up all your willpower. Exercise pals can help here, too. Habits need a cue to trigger the behavior, and a friend regularly texting that she'll see you at the pool on your usual day to get together could do the trick.
Habits also require a reward to maintain, and intrinsic motivation that comes from exercising with others can be the payoff that .
Sticking With Each Other and Exercise
Group exercise appears to hold some benefits that individual exercise may not.
in group exercise may also exercise experience. Past research has shown that people who in their exercise class attend more sessions, arrive on time, are less likely to drop out, are more resistant to disruption, and are more likely to have greater mental benefits from the exercise. Since quitting exercise programs is common and disruptions may easily throw people off their exercise routine, getting involved with a group exercise class might be a particularly good way to head off these problems.
When choosing an exercise group to join, consider how similar the other participants are to you —think about age, gender, and interests. You're likely to form a , and these interconnected groups are more likely to stick together and continue exercising.
Group Support While Safely Distant
Exercising with others can provide all the elements needed for a successful, enjoyable and active lifestyle. Especially if you're feeling isolated by the pandemic and its effects, now could be the perfect time for you to give remote group exercise a try. If the weather works, maybe you can find a yoga class that meets outdoors with plenty of space between participants, or a running club whose members stay masked.
Virtual classes may function as a substitute for in-person group exercise classes. Yes, they may take a little more motivation to find and access, or call for equipment you don't already have at home. But remote classes have additional potential benefits, including flexibility in schedule, diversity in activities and exercise types, and connecting with others who are physically distant.
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