The evidence we work to

Everything we tell you is built on published guidelines. Here is what they say, in plain English, with links to the originals.

Exercise works alongside your medical treatment, not instead of it. Please check with your care team before you start.

Exercise for people with cancer (American College of Sports Medicine roundtable, 2019)

In 2019, an international roundtable led by the American College of Sports Medicine reviewed the evidence on exercise for people with cancer. It found exercise testing and training generally safe, and said every survivor should avoid inactivity. It found enough evidence that the right dose of aerobic exercise, resistance exercise, or both, improves anxiety, depressive symptoms, fatigue, physical function and quality of life.

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Exercise during cancer treatment (American Society of Clinical Oncology, 2022)

The American Society of Clinical Oncology tells cancer doctors to recommend aerobic and resistance exercise during cancer treatment that aims to clear the cancer, to ease the side effects. Its review found improvements in fitness, strength and fatigue. It made no recommendation either way on whether exercise changes the course of the cancer itself.

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Exercise in cancer care (Clinical Oncology Society of Australia, 2018)

Australia’s Clinical Oncology Society says exercise should be embedded in standard cancer care, as an adjunct therapy that helps counteract the adverse effects of cancer and its treatment, and that everyone in the cancer team should promote it. It asks people with cancer to avoid inactivity, and to work towards 150 minutes of moderate aerobic exercise a week, plus two to three resistance sessions.

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Osteoarthritis (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, UK, 2022)

The UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence says: for all people with osteoarthritis, offer therapeutic exercise tailored to their needs, such as local muscle strengthening and general aerobic fitness. It also says to explain that joint pain may go up at the start, and that sticking with it brings bigger benefits.

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Physical activity for adults and older adults (World Health Organization, 2020)

The World Health Organization recommends 150 to 300 minutes of moderate activity a week, or 75 to 150 minutes of vigorous activity, plus muscle-strengthening work for all major muscle groups on two or more days a week. From 65, it adds balance and strength work on three or more days. And some activity is better than none.

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Recent trials

Exercise after colon cancer treatment (the CHALLENGE trial, New England Journal of Medicine, 2025)

889 people who had finished surgery and chemotherapy for colon cancer (stage III, or high-risk stage II) were randomly assigned either to a three-year structured exercise programme, supported by a physical activity consultant, or to health education materials. After a median of almost eight years, the exercise group had a 28% lower risk of the cancer coming back, a new cancer or death, and a 37% lower risk of death. Muscle and joint complaints were a little more common in the exercise group (19 in 100 against 12 in 100), which is why programmes should build up gradually. This is one trial, in one cancer, after treatment, with exercise kept up for three years. It does not show the same for every cancer or every stage, and no programme, ours included, can promise you this result. What it does show is that exercise, kept up, can matter well beyond how you feel.

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Exercise with cancer in the bones (international expert consensus, JCO Oncology Practice, 2022)

An international panel of experts in cancer and exercise agreed that people with cancer in the bones can be at some risk of a bone problem from exercise, but that this should not stop exercise being prescribed. The risk is weighed against the benefits through consultation between the person, their care team and the exercise professional, with close attention to posture, control and technique.

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Exercise for men with prostate cancer in the bones (randomised trial, Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 2018)

A team led from Edith Cowan University in Western Australia randomly assigned 57 men with prostate cancer that had spread to the bones to supervised aerobic, strength and flexibility exercise three times a week, or to usual care, for three months. The exercise group reported better physical function and gained leg strength. There were no exercise-related injuries or fractures, and bone pain did not differ between the groups.

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