• Posted May 27, 2025

Exercise Improves Odds Against Cancer

The last thing a cancer patient might like to do is hit the treadmill or hop on an exercise bike, given how much the disease and its treatments drain a person’s energy.

But toughing through regular workouts can boost their odds of beating cancer, a new study says.

Getting recommended levels of physical activity reduces the risk of dying from several common cancers, researchers reported recently in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

And the more exercise a person gets, the better their odds, results show.

“For decades, it’s been known that consistent exercise can help people live healthier lives,” said lead investigator Erika Rees-Punia, senior principal scientist for population science research at the American Cancer Society.

“Our findings bring more critical evidence that being physically active after a cancer diagnosis can bring a meaningful impact on your likelihood of survival,” Rees-Punia added in a news release.

For the study, researchers pooled data from six previous U.S.-based studies involving nearly 91,000 cancer survivors, average age 67, of whom about 45,500 died during 11 years of follow-up.

The team looked at the average amount of moderate or vigorous exercise that survivors reported after their cancer diagnosis.

U.S. guidelines recommend that people get at least 2 1/2 hours of moderate exercise per week, or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise. 

Moderate exercise might involve brisk walking, ballroom dancing, light yard work or yoga, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Examples of vigorous exercise include running, swimming laps, fast bicycling or heavy yard work involving digging or shoveling.

Overall, engaging in some physical activity lowered risk of death following a cancer diagnosis by about 29% on average, researchers found.

“For survivors of most cancer types examined (bladder, breast, colon, endometrial, lung, oral cavity and prostate), engaging in volumes of (physical activity) lower than recommendations was still associated with better overall survival compared to no (physical activity),” researchers wrote in their paper.

Getting the recommended amount of exercise provided even more benefit, lowering risk of death by an average 42%, results show.

And go-getters who got double or triple the recommended amount had more benefit still, reducing their risk by 57%.

Looking at specific cancer types, people who got their recommended amount of exercise lowered their risk of dying from:

• Oral cancer by 56%.

• Endometrial cancer by 50%.

• Lung cancer by 49%.

• Rectal cancer by 49%.

• Bladder cancer by 47%.

• Kidney cancer by 47%.

• Prostate cancer by 40%.

• Colon cancer by 39%.

• Breast cancer by 33%.

Overall, the results show that getting exercise will help, no matter how daunting it might seem at the time, researchers said.

“The effects of cancer treatment can wear you down physically and mentally,” Rees-Punia said. “This can make exercise feel like a daunting task, but doing some exercise is better than doing none. Finding an exercise that you enjoy or exercising with a friend can make it more approachable.”

More information

The American Cancer Society has more on exercising with cancer.

SOURCES: Journal of the National Cancer Institute, May 21, 2025; American Cancer Society, news release, May 21, 2025