Diet, Exercise Help Patients “Flourish” In Cancer Survivorship

In light of recent findings on the survival benefit of exercise and diet choices during cancer treatment and beyond, the power of making lifestyle changes should not be underestimated, said survival expert Michelle Kirschner, MSN, RN, ACNP, APRN-BC.

Data presented at the 2025 ASCO Annual Meeting demonstrated that patients with colon cancer who participated in a 3-year structured exercise program had a 37% lower risk of death compared with patients who received educational materials instead.¹ Additional data presented at the conference showed an 87% higher risk of death in patients with colon cancer who had a highly inflammatory diet vs patients with a highly anti-inflammatory diet.²

Given these data, Kirschner, the director of program development at the Cancer Survivorship and Supportive Care Professionals Network, emphasized that pointing patients toward “doable changes” can help patients manage their disease and quality of life without burdening them.

Kirschner highlighted that giving patients the tools to make these changes helps them “flourish” through survivorship, no matter what their situation is.

Transcript

We just had some studies that came out specifically looking at nutrition and exercise, and what we’re finding is that beyond helping with treatment-related effects, [nutrition and exercise are] starting to have mortality benefit. It’s a very important update. I have reached a point where we talk about that.

We tell our patients, “This is what your treatment is, but really exercise and nutrition can actually be like cancer treatment, and you can get more benefit from exercise than from some of the cancer treatments that currently exist.”

I focus on this idea of doable changes. When you’re in a scenario where things are out of control, often you’re just looking for something that you can do to help yourself. Those types of things like, exercise, diet, de-stressing, [socializing, and using] nature as medicine: all of these things are things that patients can do for themselves to, what I call “flourish,” because that’s really what you want to do. You can flourish no matter what’s happening. You can flourish under any circumstance. Just bring the resources that you can find alongside you.

This transcript has been edited for clarity and conciseness.

References

1. Booth CM, Vardy JL, O'Callaghan CJ, et al. A randomized phase III trial of the impact of a structured exercise program on disease–free survival (DFS) in stage 3 or high-risk stage 2 colon cancer: Canadian Cancer Trials Group (CCTG) CO.21 (CHALLENGE). J Clin Oncol. 2025;43(suppl 17):LBA3510. doi:10.1200/JCO.2025.43.17_suppl.LBA3510
2. Char SK, Zemla T, Chao M, et al. Association between empirical dietary inflammatory pattern (EDIP) and survival in patients with stage III colon cancer: Findings from CALGB/SWOG 80702 (Alliance). J Clin Oncol. 2025;43(suppl 17):LBA3509. doi:10.1200/JCO.2025.43.17_suppl.LBA3509