The results of two new prospective, observational studies offer compelling evidence to suggest that regular physical activity in the months following treatment may decrease the risk of cancer recurrence and death from colorectal cancer.

In the studies, patients with early- to later-stage colorectal cancer (but not distant metastases) who engaged in regular activity after diagnosis decreased the likelihood of cancer recurrence and mortality by 40 to 50 percent or more compared with patients who engaged in little to no activity.

Released early online July 5 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, the studies' results held true regardless of physical activity levels before cancer diagnosis or other factors that predict recurrence risk, such as the number of nearby lymph nodes harboring cancer cells.  Read more  



Guest Update by Dr. Robert Croyle

CISNET Offers Powerful New Tools for Cancer Control

Major decisions about population-level cancer control are sometimes difficult, as is evaluating the success of those choices. Six years after its creation, the Cancer Intervention and Surveillance Modeling Network (CISNET) is emerging as a powerful new tool to guide clinical and policy decisions on cancer control.

CISNET is a consortium of NCI-sponsored teams who use biostatistical modeling to improve our understanding of cancer control interventions in prevention, screening, and treatment. The teams use data from randomized controlled trials, meta-analyses, observational studies, national surveys, and studies of practice patterns to evaluate the past and potential future impact of these interventions. This is critical because population-level activities happen outside, and sometimes in advance of, controlled trials. CISNET helps science keep up with these activities by synthesizing information about the natural history of disease and the efficacy and utilization of interventions.

Currently CISNET has four groups of teams who focus on breast, prostate, colorectal, and lung cancers. Because of their high incidence and mortality, informed decisions regarding effective clinical and public health interventions for these cancers would have enormous impact.  Read more  

The NCI Cancer Bulletin is produced by the National Cancer Institute (NCI). NCI, which was established in 1937, leads the national effort to eliminate the suffering and death due to cancer. Through basic, clinical, and population-based biomedical research and training, NCI conducts and supports research that will lead to a future in which we can identify the environmental and genetic causes of cancer, prevent cancer before it starts, identify cancers that do develop at the earliest stage, eliminate cancers through innovative treatment interventions, and biologically control those cancers that we cannot eliminate so they become manageable, chronic diseases. For more information on cancer, call 1-800-4-CANCER or visit http://www.cancer.gov. NCI Cancer Bulletin staff can be reached at ncicancerbulletin@mail.nih.gov.