Cancer hospital getting chemo patients on bikes to see if it affects treatment outcomes
Exercising during chemotherapy may improve treatment outcomes for cancer patients, according to a recent pilot study at a dedicated cancer hospital in Sydney.
Cancer patients in the pilot study were given their chemotherapy drugs while riding exercise bikes.
The team hopes that long-term, exercising during the actual infusion process will show benefit to patients by increasing the blood flow to tumours.
"Tumours have bad blood supply and sometimes it's hard to get chemo to get to where it needs to go," said exercise physiologist Michael Marthick, who ran the trial.
"It's too early to say [if that will happen], but what we can say is that it's safe, people seem to enjoy it and it acts as a distraction throughout treatment."
Mr Marthick said the study also considered whether exercising during treatment changed behaviour.
"We are seeing more and more benefits now of exercise for people in terms of their fatigue, their strength, endurance and also their ability to tolerate treatment," he said.
Mr Marthick said no adverse effects were experienced by participants and another trial has been approved.
'I feel really well, I feel in control'
Susan McCarthy is one patient who has benefited from exercising during cancer treatment.
After she was diagnosed with aggressive breast cancer last year, she had a mastectomy, her lymph nodes were removed and she had chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
She was also prescribed exercise.
"My doctor talked to me in a simple way about the advantages of exercise in helping me get through the chemo and treatments," she said.
"She suggested I come and talk to the exercise physiotherapist and I feel very lucky that early in my treatment I got some professional support."
Ms McCarthy said doing the exercise made her realise she needed to change her diet, too.
"And in a weird way, being on chemo took care of that to some degree," she said.
"I'm much healthier now. I don't eat too much fat, am on a Mediterranean diet, do lots of exercise, and have joined a walking group."
Ms McCarthy says the mental and physical strength she got her through her treatment continues to aid her recovery.
"I feel really well, I feel in control, I feel strong, I am sleeping so much better and I feel really happy," she said.
"You live with the ongoing thing of cancer, but that's not worrying me because the one thing I can do is control my exercise and diet, so the rest is easier to deal with."
Ms McCarthy said the exercise helped her deal with the side effects of treatment.
"If you push through, you get more energy and you get a different lift mentally and emotionally," she said.
"You feel better about yourself because you're taking charge."
'We used to say you should rest, but now …'
Dr Judith Lacey is the Head of Supportive Care and Integrative Oncology at Chris O'Brien Lifehouse.
She said the guidelines for exercise and cancer treatment have changed dramatically over her 30 years as a doctor.
"Increasingly, what we've found is the evidence shows continuing to exercise from the time of diagnosis is proving more beneficial than we originally thought," she said.
"We used to say you should rest, but now we have high-level evidence to suggest that exercise is not only important but can also make a survival difference, and that's something that is quite new."
Dr Lacey stressed that exercise is not just going to the gym.
"The studies in yoga and chi kung as a form of exercise say these are even more beneficial for some depending on their stage of cancer and treatment," she said.
"Both include work with the breath and meditation.
"So when we talk about exercise, it's about combining it with mind-body therapies and good healthy diet and other therapies that may have added benefit."