Exercise Helps Patients Beat Colorectal Cancer

Your ass is on the line - literally. But you should train, not exercise.

"Men with nonmetastatic colorectal cancer who exercised regularly were less than half as likely to die from the disease as sedentary patients, researchers at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute reported.
Patients whose exercise habits fell into the highest category showed a 53 percent lower colorectal cancer death rate (adjusted HR 0.47, 95% CI 0.24 to 0.92, P=0.002 for trend), and a 41 percent lower death rate overall (HR 0.59, 95% CI 0.41 to 0.86, P<0.001) than men who exercised the least.

The findings, published in Dec. 14/28 Archives of Internal Medicine, suggest that regular physical activity can still have an impact on overall health even after a cancer diagnosis, lead author Jeffrey A. Meyerhardt, MD, MPH, told MedPage Today.

The benefits accrued regardless of patients' age, disease stage, body mass index, year of diagnosis, tumor location, and prediagnosis physical activity status, the researchers reported."

So do it.