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REHABILITATION
Exercise-based cancer
rehabilitation
According to the charity Macmillan, there are at least 2 million people living with, or beyond, cancer in the UK. Findings also show there are more than three quarters of a million people of working age with cancer and that 10% of people over 65 have a cancer diagnosis.
By Dr Anna Campbell
Who are the two million cancer survivors? Of the two million survivors, 28% were diagnosed with breast cancer, 12% with colorectal (bowel) cancer and 11% with prostate cancer. Breast cancer is the most common cancer diagnosed in the UK and the five year survival rate is 82%. Encouragingly, the predicted twenty-year survival rate for breast cancer patients is now 64%. Although lung cancer is the second most commonly diagnosed cancer, only 4% have a five year survival rate mainly because more than two-thirds of lung cancers are diagnosed at a late stage.
Rest is not best In the past it was assumed that the best advice to give anyone diagnosed with cancer was to rest as much as possible. However, research has shown that too much rest may result in loss of stamina, muscle tone and bone strength. Attitudes to exercising after a cancer diagnosis also shifted due to the amazing achievements of athletes such as Lance Armstrong and Jane Tomlinson.
In 1996 world-class cyclist Lance Armstrong was diagnosed with testicular cancer that had spread to his brain and lungs. Although his prognosis was originally poor he recovered and proceeded to win the Tour de France each year from 1999 to 2005.
Jane Tomlinson was an amateur English athlete who became well-known for raising millions of pounds for charity by completing the London Marathon three times, the London Triathlon twice, the New York Marathon once and cycled across Europe and the United States, despite suffering from terminal breast cancer before dying in 2007 aged 43.
With more people living longer with a diagnosis of cancer it could be considered a chronic condition. Thus as with other long term conditions such as cardiac disease, diabetes and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) it is time to provide cancer rehabilitation as part of a cancer care package and make a policy
“A recent review of more than 60 high-quality studies on the effects of exercise on cancer survivors concluded that regular exercise appears to help with confidence and self esteem”
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