Our beliefs about exercise and cancer are slowly changing. I’m glad. We used to think exercise should be avoided by cancer patients. We are now starting to understand that exercise can powerfully effect cancer cells in more ways than one.

For the second year ever, 2,000,000 people will be diagnosed with cancer in the US, and 618,000 people will die from cancer. Those are big numbers when you consider that at least 40% of cancer cases and about half of all cancer deaths could be prevented if people adhered to optimal lifestyle behaviors. Smoking, obesity, alcohol consumption, physical inactivity and poor diet are the biggest cancer risk factors.

Cancer is a group of diseases characterized by the uncontrolled growth and spread of abnormal cells that can result in death if untreated. The cause of most cancers is unknown, but the lifestyle factors mentioned above and inherited genetic mutations greatly increase risk.

Cancer rates are declining in men, but increasing in women, with women under 50 now having higher rates than men in that group. And overall, cancer patients are getting younger, as cancer is increasingly diagnosed in young adults age 20-29. Doctors and scientists are still working to understand the mystery of why more young people are getting cancer. But the answer seems pretty obvious when you realize that 70% of the “foods” they consume are ultra-processed.

The real question we need to ask ourselves is, based on our modern industrialized diet, why doesn’t everyone get cancer?

We have an amazing immune system that’s good at destroying abnormal cells. We are learning more every day about the amazing ways exercise can strengthen the immune system. And more importantly, we are starting to understand the effect exercise has on cancer cells.

A study published in 2023 looked at the 16-year outcome of patients after being diagnosed with cancer. They found that patients who performed 30 minutes of moderate intensity activity at least four days a week and/or 20 minutes of intense activity at least two days a week reduced their chances of dying from all types of cancer by 25%. Let me repeat that—cancer patients who did things like walking four times a week and lifting weights for 20 minutes once or twice a week reduced their chance of dying from cancer by 25%!!!!! This study alone should be enough to convince us that cancer patients should be exercising.

But there’s more. A large number of studies have been published in the past couple of years promoting the anti-cancer benefits of exercise. And more importantly, we are now understanding the benefits of exercise for cancer patients. Staying physically active improves the symptoms and side effects in patients undergoing chemo and radiation therapy. It also helps those who have surgery recover faster with fewer complications.

The research also tells us that exercising during cancer treatment reduces fatigue, anxiety, and depression. That’s because staying active helps patients continue engaging in their regular activities of daily living.

This year the New England Journal of Medicine published the results of the first randomized controlled trial showing that exercise increased disease-free and overall survival for colon cancer patients who completed chemotherapy. This study is extremely important because it’s the first study that truly shows from an unbiased perspective that exercise provides a very positive outcome for cancer patients.

This past July, a study was published that caught my attention more than any I’ve seen on the effect exercise has on cancer. The study recruited 32 women who had been diagnosed with breast cancer. The women were randomly assigned to perform one of two exercise protocols: strength training or high intensity aerobic exercise.

Blood samples were drawn from the women before exercise, immediately after, and 30 minutes later to measure for concentrations of four myokines with known anti-cancer properties. Myokines are small proteins that are produced and released by skeletal muscles during contractions. All four anti-cancer myokines were significantly increased after exercise.

What the researchers did next was really cool. In a lab, they subjected breast cancer cells to the blood collected from the women after exercise. Cell cancer growth was reduced by as much as 21% from the resistance training group and by as much as 29% from the high intensity aerobic group.

So now we have research that literally shows us one of the ways exercise prevents and fights cancer. It produces its own immune cells that immediately kill cancer cells.

We have a lot more to learn about cancer, especially when it comes to prevention and treatment. Studies like the ones we mentioned above convincingly prove the power of exercise in the fight against cancer. It only takes a few hours a week to exercise in a way that can prevent and help fight cancer. Walking five days a week and strength training once a week can pretty much get it done.

If you haven’t done so already, make sure you get in to see us for your 20 Minutes A Week of strength training.

Stay Strong,

Bo Railey