Ioanna Nixon, Honorary Clinical Senior Lecturer at University of Glasgow and Consultant Clinical Oncologist at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, shared a post on LinkedIn:
“Thoughts of an Oncologist on physical activity during cancer treatment.
I had an interesting conversation with colleagues recently about evidence and interventions around physical activity in cancer care.
What do we tell patients?
And importantly, what can we actually offer?
A recent phase 3 randomised trial in colon cancer brings us closer to answering a key question:
Can exercise influence cancer outcomes?
In patients with resected stage III or high-risk stage II colon cancer, after completing adjuvant chemotherapy, a structured 3-year exercise program was associated with:
- Improved disease-free survival (80.3% vs 73.9%)
- A lower risk of recurrence, new cancer, or death (HR 0.72)
- Findings consistent with improved overall survival (90.3% vs 83.2%)
- A lower risk of death (HR 0.63)
This matters.
Not because it tells us that exercise cures cancer. It doesn’t.
But because it shows that, in the right setting, with structure and support, exercise can influence outcomes after cancer treatment.
And that changes the conversation.
From ‘Try to stay active if you can’ to ‘What support do we need to make this part of care’?
Perhaps more importantly, it reframes survivorship.
Not as a passive phase after treatment, but as an active opportunity to improve outcomes.
This was a structured intervention.
This was randomised trial evidence.
And while questions remain, it gives us something we did not have before: A signal that behaviour, when supported properly, can matter at a clinical level.
That is worth paying attention to.
Structured Exercise after Adjuvant Chemotherapy for Colon Cancer
Courneya et al., NEJM 2025 (CHALLENGE / CO.21)”
Other articles featuring Ioanna Nixon on OncoDaily.