Jun J. Mao, MD of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center discusses how physical activity and fitness help lung cancer patients get better prognosis and better outcomes. Many patients, when diagnosed with cancer or beginning to start getting chemo, started to feel exhausted that it can get worse. The best advice the family might give is for the patient to slow down and take a rest. However, based on observational study of some trials, physical activity and cardiopulmonary fitness is associated with better mortality with a lung cancer. He also stresses out the counterintuitive thinking we have with fatigue. Many of us see fatigue as the reason patients cant exercise. However, he said that there are evidences that some level of activities can actually help improve cancer-related fatigue. Hence, as a doctor, it is a challenge for him to motivate his patients to start with physical activity and eventually keep it up, reaping the benefit of it in the long run.
Active Patients Equal Better Prognosis and Physically Fit Lung Cancer Patience See Better Outcomes
