Exercise in Oncology: The Basic Principles of Exercise within Oncology (Part I)

July 2, 2012
By: Scott Adams

To keep it simple, the one thing you need to take away from this post is that exercise can simultaneously and positively affect more of our body systems than any other drug on the market! There is not one single thing you can do that will benefit as many areas of your life as exercise. In a former post I touched on a bunch of cancer-related issues whose burden may be lessened by applying the correct dose of exercise. In this post I will start to review the basic subset of principles that professionals use when prescribing exercise for people in recovery from or living with cancer. Use these principles to help guide your exercise-related decision making.

Principle I: Understanding your needs

I chose to start with this principle because unless you and the person prescribing exercise for you understand your needs, you may take longer to reach your goals and may risk injury. Factors that must be considered when designing rehab/exercise programs within oncology are:

1. Age and Gender
a. With increasing age there are increased risks of developing health complications (which differ between men and women)

2. Pre-Diagnosis Fitness Level
a. It should be simple to understand that people who have a higher baseline exercise capacity will probably tolerate post-diagnosis and post-treatment exercise a little better than those with a lower baseline capacity

3. Stage of Disease
a. The goals of someone with (or recovering from) early stage disease are probably different from someone living with advanced disease

4. Timing of the Intervention
a. The approaches to, and potential benefits of, exercise can differ greatly for people in treatment and people who are sufficiently post-treatment
b. This consideration also includes how symptomatic someone is when attempting to exercise

5. All other Relevant Medical History
a. Pre-existing and all cancer-related cardiovascular, musculoskeletal, metabolic, and nervous system conditions can drastically impact the approach to prescribing exercise

6. Individual Goals
a. Inclusive of i) disease or residual deficit-specific, ii) personally empowering, and iii) quality of life

7. Life Stage and Level of Support
a. Again, it should be simple to understand that young or single parents may have a different capacity to fit exercise into their lives when compared to those without dependents (e.g. students, some single professionals) or for those who are a part of a well supported family unit.

Regardless of how you fit into the above categories, exercise has been shown to be safe and rewarding for almost everyone recovering or living with cancer. If you have questions regarding any of the principles above, and don’t have access to an exercise or rehabilitation specialist, you can write in to CancerFightClub’s professional Q&A service to get some general advice.

(…stay tuned for Principle II: Understanding your risks)