Yale: For many cancer survivors, a better quality of life is as close as
the nearest pair of sneakers. That’s because a growing body of research,
including two recent studies led by Yale Cancer Center, show that
exercise is a powerful way for survivors to improve quality of life. The
studies were presented at the 2015 Annual Meeting of the American
Society of Clinical Oncology in Chicago. The first evaluated the effect
of the LIVESTRONG at the YMCA program
on cancer survivors who participated in twice-weekly, 90 minute
exercise sessions for 3 months at local YMCAs. The other study explored
whether home-based exercise programs that encouraged brisk walking could
improve fatigue and quality of life for ovarian cancer survivors.
Both
studies showed exercise to be a potent tool for survivors to improve
life in many areas.
The LIVESTRONG at the YMCA
study was conducted by Dr. Melinda Irwin, associate professor of
Epidemiology in Yale School of Public Health and associate director of
population sciences at Yale Cancer Center; and Dr. Jennifer Ligibel of
Dana Farber Cancer Institute. It evaluated 186 participants for quality
of life, physical activity and fitness. After 12 weeks, participants
were shown to experience significant increases in physical activity (71
percent exercising a minimum of 150 minutes/week vs. 26 percent for the
control group); and improvements in both overall quality of life and
fitness performance (according to a six- minute walk test). The
participants had been diagnosed with stages I-IV of cancer and 50
percent had breast cancer. In addition, at the outset of the program,
the majority of the participants had been inactive.
“For many
people, quality of life is compromised after a cancer diagnosis. This
study showed that exercise can improve patients’ lives in a myriad of
ways, regardless of how active they were in the past,” said Irwin, first
author on the study. “In addition to quality of life, physical activity
is associated with risk of dying from cancer. The LIVESTRONG at the YMCA program could be a national model to increase exercise in cancer patients across the country.”
The WALC study,
conducted at Yale and led by Dr. Irwin, is the largest exercise trial
of ovarian cancer survivors, It enrolled 144 ovarian cancer survivors
who were not physically active and randomized them to an exercise group
or control group. Each group received a weekly call from a counselor to
discuss a health topic relevant to ovarian cancer survivors. For the
exercise group, women also received physical activity counseling from a
certified cancer exercise trainer during the calls.
The results
showed that a moderate-intensity walking program can improve ovarian
cancer survivors’ quality of life, in particular physical functioning,
improvement in pain and reduced fatigue. Women were interested in
exercising and able to do so at recommended levels even though 55% had
stage III or IV disease and 25% experienced a recurrence during the
trial.
“Our hope is that this study will encourage survivors of
even late-stage cancers to consider exercise as a way of coping with a
number of issues that come with a cancer diagnosis,” said Dr. Yang Zhou,
first author on the study. “We also hope oncologists will use this
study and others like it to refer patients to survivorship programs that
incorporate exercise.”
Additional authors on the LIVESTRONG
study included: Brenda Cartmel, Maura Harrigan, Tara Beth Sanft,
Celeste Wong, Meghan Hughes, Norbert Hootsmans, Bridget Winterhalter,
all of Yale University; Laura Shockro, Keelin O'Connor, Sara M.
Tolaney, Erica L. Mayer, Rachel Lynn Yung, Rachel A. Freedman, and
Jennifer A. Ligibel, all of Dana Farber Cancer Institute
Additional
authors on the WALC study included: Linda Gottlieb, Brenda Cartmel,
Fangyong Li, Elizabeth A. Ercolano, Maura Harrigan, Ruth McCorkle, Peter
Schwartz, and Harvey A. Risch, all of Yale University; Jennifer
Ligibel, of Dana Farber Cancer Institute; Vivian E. von Gruenigen, of
Case Western Reserve University; and Radhika Gogoi, of Geisinger Health
System
The National Cancer Institute funded the WALC study.