Staying physically active after a cancer diagnosis significantly improves survival rates across ten cancer types, including breast, lung, and prostate.
United States: An extensive new analysis found that getting daily moderate-to-vigorous physical activity after cancer improves survival rates for people with bladder, breast, colon, endometrial, kidney, lung, oral, prostate, rectal, and respiratory cancers.
To our knowledge, this is the first longitudinal study that looks at physical activity in bladder and oral cavity cancer survivors and is also the biggest study of associations in endometrial, kidney, and lung cancer survivors.
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According to Dr. Erika Rees-Punia, senior principal scientist, population science research at the American Cancer Society and lead author of the study, “For decades, it’s been known that regular exercise can help people live healthier lives,” medicalxpress.com reported.
“Our findings bring more critical evidence that being physically active after a cancer diagnosis can bring a meaningful impact on your likelihood of survival,” as the expert stated.
They joined results from six US studies that examined 90,844 cancer survivors, with an average age of 67, and 45,477 of them died during the follow-up period of 10.9 years.
🚨Exercise after #cancer diagnosis🚨
— Adam B. Weiner, MD (@Adam_Weiner535) May 22, 2025
🏋️♀️🏋️♂️Ask any of my patients with cancer & you'll hear I always encourage fitness
✍️This new work in @JNCI_Now shows exercise after a new cancer diagnosis is associated with longer survival
👉This was true for patients with many GU cancers… pic.twitter.com/J7DorfOhEy
The associations between MVPA measured at least one year after a cancer diagnosis and risk of dying were calculated by proportional hazards models and later combined with a random effects meta-analysis.
The findings were adjusted for age, sex, race/ethnicity, smoking status, alcohol use, being treated for cancer and cancer stage, medicalxpress.com reported.
Better chances of survival were found for people with one of ten cancer types—oral, endometrial, lung, rectal, respiratory, bladder, kidney, prostate, colon, and breast—who exercised the recommended doses of MVPA after their cancer diagnosis versus those who did no MVPA.
Research recommends that people achieve 7.5 to 15 MET-hours of MVPA per week, which is the same as 2.5 to 5 hours of energetic walking.
“The effects of cancer treatment can wear you down physically and mentally,” as per Rees-Punia.
“This can make exercise feel like a daunting task, but doing some exercise is better than doing none. Finding an exercise that you enjoy or exercising with a friend can make it more approachable,” the expert continued.
