Weight management and physical activity throughout the cancer care continuum

Abstract

Mounting evidence suggests that weight management and physical activity (PA) improve overall health and well being, and reduce the risk of morbidity and mortality among cancer survivors. Although many opportunities exist to include weight management and PA in routine cancer care, several barriers remain. This review summarizes key topics addressed in a recent National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine workshop entitled, "Incorporating Weight Management and Physical Activity Throughout the Cancer Care Continuum." Discussions related to body weight and PA among cancer survivors included: 1) current knowledge and gaps related to health outcomes; 2) effective intervention approaches; 3) addressing the needs of diverse populations of cancer survivors; 4) opportunities and challenges of workforce, care coordination, and technologies for program implementation; 5) models of care; and 6) program coverage. While more discoveries are still needed for the provision of optimal weight-management and PA programs for cancer survivors, obesity and inactivity currently jeopardize their overall health and quality of life. Actionable future directions are presented for research; practice and policy changes required to assure the availability of effective, affordable, and feasible weight management; and PA services for all cancer survivors as a part of their routine cancer care. CA Cancer J Clin 2018;68:64-89. © 2017 American Cancer Society.

Barriers to physical activity: a study of academic and community cancer survivors with pain

“…For cancer survivors with more clinical symptoms and comorbidities, clinicians and surgeons may want to prescribe low-to-moderate intensity physical exercises and/or refer patients to cancer rehabilitation/physical therapy specialists during the cancer treatment period [35]. Previous studies have shown that exercise during and after active cancer treatment is beneficial for improving physical function, health-related quality of life, and cancer-related fatigue [8, 21, 36, 37]. Additionally, research has shown cancer survivors who receive an exercise recommendation from their clinician tend to be more physically active [38, 39].…”

Physical activity and quality of life in African American cancer survivors: The Detroit Research on Cancer Survivors study

“…Moreover, changes in the amount of PA between the baseline and the first follow‐up were well correlated with HRQOL, depression, and anxiety. Because PA and maintenance of an optimal body weight after cancer have been consistently shown to reduce morbidity and mortality, regardless of race, it is important to reduce barriers to participation among all individuals but particularly in high‐risk populations. We observed that just one‐quarter of African American cancer survivors reported PA patterns consistent with meeting ACS recommendations of at least 150 min/wk of moderate to vigorous PA.…”

The association of physical activity before and after lymphoma diagnosis with survival outcomes

“…Jones et al studied 1187 adult survivors of pediatric HL and found that vigorous intensity exercise was associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular events in a dose‐dependent manner independent of cardiovascular risk profile and HL treatment . The mechanism of disease‐specific survival benefit from PA is likely multifactorial and not well understood . One possible explanation could be that patients who are more physically active are more likely to tolerate and complete lymphoma treatments .…”