UCSF

Background

The impact of physical activity on survival outcomes in patients with recurrent colon cancer has not been studied. We tested the association between the level of postdiagnosis physical activity and survival outcomes of patients with recurrent colon cancer.

Patients and methods

We conducted a prospective observational study of 237 patients with stage III colon cancer who had recurrence of disease. Physical activity was measured approximately 6 months after the completion of therapy (14 months after surgical resection) but before detection of recurrent disease. The primary end point of the study was survival time after recurrence.

Results

The hazard ratio comparing patients who reported at least 18 metabolic equivalent task (MET) hours per week of physical activity with those engaging in < 3 MET hours per week was 0.71 (95% confidence interval, 0.46-1.11). Increasing total MET hours of physical activity per week was associated with a borderline statistical significance trend for improved survival after recurrence (P = .052). The benefit of physical activity on survival was not significantly modified by sex, body mass index (BMI), number of positive lymph nodes, age, baseline performance status, adjuvant chemotherapy regimen, or recurrence-free survival period.

Conclusion

To our knowledge, this is the first study investigating the association of physical activity with survival outcome of patients with recurrent colon cancer. Although the association exceeded our predefined P trend < .05 for statistical significance, these findings warrant further studies of physical activity in patients with recurrent colorectal cancer.