Exercise slashes risk of death in patients with colon cancer
Colon cancer develops in the part of the large intestine known as the colon, part of the large bowel, which also comprises the rectum and anus.
It can sometimes be referred to as bowel cancer or colorectal cancer.
Cancer Research UK estimates about 31,800 people every year in the UK are diagnosed with the disease, with around 9,500 deaths.
The CO21 Challenge trial, led by researchers in Northern Ireland and Canada, involved 889 people with colon cancer from six countries, including the UK.
All patients had had surgery and chemotherapy for their cancer and were deemed well enough to exercise, but were not meeting recommended physical activity levels.
Around half were given a three-year tailored exercise programme, which included the likes of brisk walking, circuit classes, cycling, or swimming.
The plan included in-person coaching sessions for the first six months, as well as regular meetings with a physical activity consultant.
The other group were offered materials that promoted exercise and nutrition.
The study found that after five years, the risk of dying, relapse or developing a new cancer was 28% lower in the group with a tailored exercise plan.
After eight years, patients in the physical activity group had a 37% lower risk of death.
Professor Vicky Coyle, UK lead researcher for the trial and clinical professor at Queen's University Belfast, said: 'During the trial, we supported people to reach their weekly exercise target in a way that worked for them.
'This could be a brisk walk for around 40 minutes every day, but some patients were also doing circuit classes, cycling, swimming, and many other activities.
'Our study gives clear, encouraging evidence that physical activity can reduce the risk of cancer returning for some people with colon cancer.
'We now need to work with policymakers and healthcare providers to embed exercise into treatment plans where appropriate.'
Dr Joe Henson, associate professor in lifestyle medicine at the University of Leicester, said: 'Leading the exercise sessions in Leicester, I saw first-hand that this reduced fatigue, lifted people's mood, and boosted their physical strength.
'We know that physical activity regulates several key biological processes that could explain these results, and further research will help us uncover why exercise is having such a positive impact.'
The findings, published in the New England Journal of Medicine and presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), could 'transform clinical practice', according to experts.
Caroline Geraghty, senior specialist information nurse at Cancer Research UK, which part-funded the CO21 Challenge through Stand Up To Cancer, said: 'Being active has many benefits, and this study shows that exercise doesn't only improve well-being – it can also boost people's chances of surviving colon cancer.
'Everyone recovering from cancer should have access to tailored support to help them live longer, better lives.
'This trial has the potential to transform clinical practice, but only if health services have the necessary funding and staff to make it a reality for patients.
'It's important to remember that every cancer journey is different – starting new activities after treatment can feel overwhelming, and it may not be the right option for everyone. Take things at your own pace and speak to your doctor to discuss what is safe for you.'
Professor Peter Johnson, NHS national clinical director for cancer, said: 'These exciting findings add to the growing evidence of the benefits of physical activity for people affected by cancer, not just in helping them be fitter for treatment and boosting their immediate recovery, but reducing the risk of the disease coming back.
'This is why we've asked cancer alliances across the country to look at ways to encourage and support patients to do physical activity and ensure every healthcare professional they see can help them be in the best possible place – both physically and mentally – before, during and after treatment.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Times
12 hours ago
- Times
Scientists' discovery could stop breast cancer spreading
Scottish scientists have made a discovery that could help stop breast cancer spreading to other parts of the body. Experts at Cancer Research UK Scotland Institute and the University of Glasgow have found there are key metabolic changes that take place before tumours grow elsewhere. Their work is being hailed as a significant breakthrough because it is often cancer moving from the breast that kills patients. • How I told my sons that I had a rare form of breast cancer Researchers writing in the journal EMBO Reports said identifying the metabolic changes offered a vital window to intervene. Detecting these changes early could allow therapies to stop cancer cells moving around the body and forming tumours elsewhere. Dr Cassie Clarke, lead researcher, said: 'This study represents a major shift in how we think about preventing the spread of breast cancer. By targeting these metabolic changes as early as possible we could stop the cancer progressing and save lives.' About 56,800 people are diagnosed with breast cancer in the United Kingdom each year and 11,300 people lose their lives to the disease. Dr Catherine Elliott, Cancer Research UK's director of research, said: 'Discoveries in cancer research have made huge strides in making breast cancer a far more treatable disease than ever before. • Why the way we diagnose, label and treat cancer is changing 'However, metastasis — when cancer spreads — is a major factor in breast cancer becoming harder to treat, especially if the cancer returns months or even many years later. 'This discovery gives us new hope for detecting and stopping metastasis early and ensuring people have many more years with their families and loved ones.' The study focused on how breast cancer changes the immune system so it cannot tackle cancer cells as they begin their spread. The researchers found that cancer changes the metabolism — the way cells make and use energy — of specific immune cells, resulting in them releasing a prominent metabolite called uracil. Uracil is a molecule key to essential processes in the body which was found to help distant organs build a 'scaffold' to grow secondary tumours elsewhere in the body. By blocking an enzyme called uridine phosphorylase-1 (UPP1), which produces uracil, the scientists were able to stop this scaffold forming in mice and restore the ability of the immune system to kill secondary cancer cells to prevent metastasis. This opens the door to potentially powerful new tools to tackle cancer. Detecting uracil in the blood could help spot early signs of cancer spread, while blocking UPP1 with drugs could stop the spread before it starts. • The Times View: It is time to be optimistic about cancer The research was funded by Cancer Research UK, the Wellcome Trust, the Medical Research Council, Breast Cancer Now and Pancreatic Cancer UK. Simon Vincent, chief scientific officer at Breast Cancer Now, said: 'The researchers discovered that high levels of a protein called UPP1 may make some cancers, including breast cancer, more likely to spread to other parts of the body, where the disease becomes incurable. 'In mice, targeting the UPP1 protein before secondary breast cancer developed led to fewer secondary breast tumours and a boosted immune response in the lungs. 'Now we need more research to see if this new insight can be turned into new drugs that stop secondary breast cancer, and potentially other secondary cancers, in their tracks. With around 61,000 people living with secondary breast cancer in the UK, research like this is vital.' The team are further investigating exactly how UPP1 changes the behaviour of immune cells, exploring the role of immune cell metabolism in early breast cancer initiation, and testing the ability of drugs that block immune cell metabolism to prevent cancer occurring.
Telegraph
18 hours ago
- Telegraph
We'll use AI to spot more prostate cancer, says Science Secretary
Artificial Intelligence will be harnessed to find hidden cases of prostate cancer, the Science Secretary has said. Peter Kyle told The Telegraph that the Government is investing £168m on initiatives to use public data better and one major goal is to improve cancer screening on the NHS. A world-leading initiative led by Cancer Research UK has been given £10m in funding to improve cancer screening methods by identifying the most at-risk people and offering them personalised tests. The funding will 'develop AI-powered tools that can predict cancer risk', Mr Kyle said, and could save thousands of lives a year. The Telegraph has launched a campaign calling for a targeted national screening programme for prostate cancer, which focusses on men who are at the greatest risk. This includes men over 50, black men, whose risk is twice that of white men, and those with a family history of prostate cancer. Steve McQueen, Bob Willis and Chris Hoy are some of the high-profile British men to be recently diagnosed with the condition. Around 55,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer annually in England and around 33 men a day die from the condition. Writing for The Telegraph alongside Stian Westlake, the executive chairman of the Economic and Social Research Council, Mr Kyle said: 'This funding will support work on a project linking health records to demographics, family history and behaviour to identify those at higher risk of this devastating illness, so that it can be treated early – potentially saving thousands of lives every year.' The plan is to create flexible national screening programmes which can pick up more cases in individuals who may otherwise be missed and diagnosed only when the cancer was incurable. Officials are hoping to replicate the success of BRCA1 genetic screening. Around one in 400 people has faulty BRCA genes, which give women a 60 per cent chance of developing breast cancer. This received widespread attention and became known as the 'Angelina Jolie gene' after the Hollywood actress underwent a double mastectomy after finding out she was a carrier in 2013. The NHS now offers genetic tests to high-risk groups, such as Jewish women, to catch as many cases early as possible. Mr Kyle said: 'Just as BRCA gene screening, heroically brought to the fore by campaigners including Angelina Jolie, revolutionised how we understand and manage the risk of hereditary breast cancer, this next generation of data-driven screening could do the same for more cancers, including prostate cancer.' Scientists running the scheme hope it can enable the NHS to offer more frequent cancer screening sessions or screening at a younger age to those at higher risk, while those at lower risk could be spared unnecessary tests. People identified as higher risk could also be sent for cancer testing faster when they go to their GP with possible symptoms. The wider Administrative Data Partnership will last until 2031 and try to repurpose data that already exists to make improvements to the judicial service, education, health and other public sectors. Combining, standardising and interpreting different datasets simultaneously is a daunting challenge for scientists owing to decades of independent data collection and little crossover. However, the Government believes that vast data reserves, combined with the power of AI computing, could transform healthcare. The cancer screening project will build new models over the next five years to merge relevant data as well as creating algorithms which will process it and ensure the results are accurate and reliable. Antonis Antoniou, the programme director and professor of cancer risk prediction at the University of Cambridge, said: 'The UK's strengths in population-scale data resources, combined with advanced analytical tools like AI, offer tremendous opportunities to link disparate datasets and uncover clues that could lead to earlier detection, diagnosis, and prevention of more cancers.' Dr David Crosby, the head of prevention and early detection research at Cancer Research UK, told The Telegraph: 'The single most important thing we can do to beat cancer is to find it earlier, when treatment is more likely to be successful. 'With half a million cancer cases per year expected in the UK by 2040, we need a major shift towards more accurate diagnosis and detection of early cancer. 'The Cancer Data Driven Detection programme will link health data sources together and build the powerful new tools doctors need to identify those at highest risk of cancer and prioritise resources towards them. 'Moving towards a preventative approach to healthcare will not be easy and will take time. Cancer Research UK's investment in the programme is an investment in the future of cancer care.' Data is the key to changing lives for the better By Peter Kyle and Stian Westlake For much of our everyday lives, data is king – from digital maps getting us from A to B, to health apps keeping our fitness and sleep in check, to even streaming platforms suggesting the next drama we might want to get stuck into. For this government, making good use of data is the difference between successful policies that are rooted in evidence, and those that rely on hope, luck or intuition, which no minister, legislator or council leader wants to rely on. Ultimately data is the bedrock of decision-making, ensuring policies, programmes and funding are doing what they are intended to do – changing lives for the better. Linking data from across government to the national pupil database for example can help to really dig into the source of inequalities that trap too many Brits from childhood through to the labour market – helping us to take targeted action in boosting social mobility and shattering glass ceilings. Or by better applying it in the justice system, we can understand patterns of reoffending, stopping career criminals from inflicting more misery on the law-abiding majority. And it can forecast the impact that this government extending the national living wage has on younger workers, so that millions more who put the hours in take home the pay they deserve. What unites all of these examples is that they were all made possible by UKRI's administrative data research UK partnership. It works to connect, and make sense of, the huge wealth of data that is generated by government services, bringing it to our world class researchers securely and with the public's privacy at heart since 2018. In short it has been demonstrating the role data can play in improving lives in as many ways as we can imagine and more. But we know we can go further and too many social and economic researchers – many of the very best of whom are right here in the UK – simply can't access the data they need. It is fragmented and siloed, held in different datasets by different public organisations. That means too many rely instead on insights from abroad, which while offering much, simply can't tell the full story of life in Britain in 2025. Accessing the raw resource of all that data and translating it into a form that researchers can use is no easy task, and while we need to grow our data science expertise, we also need to build relationships and make the case to other organisations that secure data sharing has the power to change lives. That is why UKRI is investing a further £168m to continue ADR UK's programme of work through to 2031. This includes continuing our partnership with Cancer Research UK to develop AI-powered tools that can predict cancer risk based on health records, family history and behaviour. Just as BRCA gene screening, heroically brought to the fore by campaigners including Angelina Jolie, revolutionised how we understand and manage the risk of hereditary breast cancer, this next generation of data-driven screening could do the same for more cancers, including prostate cancer. This funding will support work with organisations and charities like Cancer Research UK for example, on a project linking health records to demographics, family history, and behaviour to identify those at higher risk of this devastating illness, so that it can be treated early – potentially saving thousands of lives every year. The ADR will also offer learnings for and help us shape our new national data library, a central government resource designed to bring together existing research programmes and make it easier for policymakers and public bodies to access and use data securely to improve public services. As the incredible opportunities and challenges of technology like AI advance at unprecedented speeds and as we grapple with the fate of our planet as our climate changes, using data to drive policy for the generations to come has never been more important. This government is driven by a plan for change that will transform the lives of the British people, from growing our economy so that our payslips go further, to unlocking opportunity for everyone regardless of background, and building an NHS that is fit for the future and makes the most of the opportunities in new technology. Data can play a huge part in getting that right and targeting government support where it is needed most.
Daily Mirror
a day ago
- Daily Mirror
Breast cancer warning issued to all women as common sign won't always appear
More difficult to notice and poorly understood, lobular breast cancer is finally coming under the spotlight but it's not as easy to spot the signs, especially one common one woman look for Lobular breast cancer, also known as invasive lobular carcinoma (ILC), is more common than ovarian and skin cancer yet there is little awareness of it. According to Cancer Research UK, one in seven women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime and around 15% of those will have ILC. BBC presenter Victoria Derbyshire, 56, was diagnosed with the disease in 2015. ILC is different to the most common form of ductal breast cancer. Instead of starting in the breast ducts, it starts in the lobules, the glands that produce milk, and grows in a spider's web pattern. Cancer cells infect the tissue around the glands and rarely show in lumps, so it is harder to spot and likely to be diagnosed later. At least a fifth of ILC cases return years later. When this happens, the cancer becomes even harder to treat. And yet it's an under-diagnosed subtype of breast cancer that is underfunded and poorly understood. Kate Ford, a campaigner from the Lobular MoonShot Project (LMSP), says, 'The basic biology of this disease has never been studied and it has no specific treatment. ILC needs a moon shot approach – a fast injection of cash – to research funding.' On 24 June, 22 women led by LMSP Founder Dr Susan Michaelis, who sadly passed away from ILC on 9 July, held a vigil outside 10 Downing Street and delivered a petition backed by more than 350 MPs to the Prime Minister, calling for urgent funding for ILC research. Symptoms to watch out for Lobular breast cancer rarely forms lumps. Instead, the things to look out for include an area of thickening or swelling around the breast, a change in the nipple, for example it becoming inverted, or a change in the skin, such as dimpling, puckering or even a small new mark. Don't ignore other changes Cancer Research UK suggests people should also look out for pain and itching, a new lump in your breast or armpit, a change in the size, shape or feel of your breast, skin changes in the breast such as a rash or redness of the skin, fluid leaking from the nipple in a woman who isn't pregnant or breastfeeding and/or changes in the position of the nipple. If you see any of these symptoms you're advised to visit your doctor. Get a diagnosis Your GP will refer you to a clinic if they believe you might have ILC. They will examine your breasts and check for swollen lymph nodes. They may use a mammogram, an ultrasound if you're under 35, a biopsy or an MRI scan. MRI and biopsy are the most effective detection tools for ILC. Mammograms and ultrasound often fail to show the presence of the disease. How ILC is treated ILC is currently treated with chemotherapy, surgery and drugs to reduce the level of oestrogen, which cancer cells need to grow. Chemo works best on fast-dividing cells, but lobular breast cancer is not fast dividing, so the efficacy of chemo on ILC is not entirely understood. Depending on the size and abnormality, whether cells have receptors for drugs, your general health and age, a doctor will consider the best treatment, but generally it is the same as for the more common types of breast cancer. Hope for the future The Lobular Moon Shot Project is campaigning to raise £20min government funding to carry out vital research on ILC in partnership with the Manchester Breast Centre and led by breast biology expert Professor Rob Clarke.'With this funding, we could potentially develop a drug and begin testing it on patients within the next five years,' he says. "The fear of recurrence is always with me" Lobular Moon Shot Project campaigner, teacher and mum-of-three Katie Swinburne, 49, was diagnosed with ILC in 2023. 'Prior to my diagnosis, I was extremely fit and healthy, and took care with the food I ate. I remember the morning I found a lump very clearly. It appeared overnight after two years of other symptoms including pain and itching. It was extremely large, but in my ignorance I thought it was a cyst. 'I went to see my GP and was sent to have a mammogram, the nan ultrasound. The sonographer felt the lump but was confident there was nothing to worry about. He performed a biopsy to try and establish what the lump was. 'At my next appointment, a consultant came in, followed by a nurse. I was soon to learn the nurse was a Macmillan nurse. I was smiling and chatting away to the consultant, expecting to be sent on my way, when he said, 'We have the results – you have an invasive lobular carcinoma.' 'Hearing the words 'you have cancer' is like nothing else. My life, my body and my future were no longer assured. At the time of my diagnosis, my children were 10, 12 and 14. The thought of leaving them left me breathless. 'A whirlwind of appointments followed, including CT, MRI and DEXA scans. I had a double mastectomy and dose-dense chemotherapy, then radiotherapy. The nurses are angels. They hold your hand through it all. You find reserves you never knew you had. 'The fear of recurrence is always with me. I'm two years on from diagnosis and still too young for screening. Had that lump not appeared, my story might be very different. I think we need to start education and screening at a much younger age.' The Macmillan Support Line offers free, confidential support to people living with cancer and their loved ones. Call for free within the UK on 0808 808 0000
