After Cancer Diagnosis, Survivors Improve Odds With Diet, Exercise, Weight Control

The American Cancer Society recently reported that maintaining a healthy weight, getting adequate physical activity, and eating a healthy diet can decrease the chance of recurrence and increase the chance of disease-free survival after a cancer diagnosis. The new recommendations are published early online in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians.

Increasing evidence shows that for many cancers, excess weight, lack of exercise, and poor nutrition increase the risk of cancer recurrence and reduce the likelihood of disease-free and overall survival for cancer patients.

“The data suggest that cancer survivors, just like everyone else, benefit from these important steps,” said Colleen Doyle, MS, RD, American Cancer Society director of Nutrition and Physical Activity and co-author of the guidelines. “While we have published previous reports outlining the evidence on the impact of nutrition and physical activity on cancer recurrence and survival, this is the first time the evidence has been strong enough to release formal guidelines for survivorship, as we have done for cancer prevention. Living a physically active lifestyle and eating a healthy diet should absolutely be top of mind for anyone who has been diagnosed with cancer.”

This most recent report, entitled “Nutrition and Physical Activity Guidelines for Cancer Survivors,” is a revision of the report issued in 2006. For the update, experts in nutrition, physical activity, and cancer survivorship reviewed scientific evidence regarding nutrition and exercise following a diagnosis of cancer. The experts determined:

• Preventing weight gain during treatment may be important not only for survivors who are overweight, but also those of normal weight
• Planned weight loss after recovering from cancer treatment among overweight and obese patients may be beneficial to overall health
• Evidence strongly suggests that exercise is not only safe and feasible during cancer treatment, but also that it can improve physical functioning, fatigue, multiple aspects of quality of life, and may even increase the rate of completion of chemotherapy
• Physical activity following a cancer diagnosis is associated with a reduced risk of cancer recurrence and improved overall mortality among multiple cancer survivor groups
• A dietary pattern high in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, poultry, and fish was found to reduce mortality in women after breast cancer diagnosis and treatment.

“As more people survive cancer, there is increasing interest in finding information about food choices, physical activity, and dietary supplements to improve treatment outcomes, quality of life, and overall survival,” said Doyle. “Our report summarizes the findings of this expert panel, and is intended to present healthcare providers with the best possible information with which to help cancer survivors and their families make informed choices related to nutrition and physical activity.”

Source: ACS.