Pay for supervised exercise the way we pay for drugs
A large trial showed a structured exercise programme improved survival after bowel cancer. Almost no health system pays for it, so almost no patient gets it.
A randomised trial of a three-year structured exercise programme after colon cancer chemotherapy reported improved disease-free survival, an effect size comparable with some adjuvant drugs at a small fraction of the cost. Reimbursement codes, referral pathways and trained providers are the barriers. Cardiac rehabilitation is the working template for how a supervised exercise service can be funded and audited at scale.
- Cachexia, toxicity and the limits of the patient · Patients often die of wasting or cannot tolerate the doses that would work. Treating the patient, not just the tumour, lags far behind.
- Survivorship and late effects are neglected · Tens of millions of people live after cancer with heart damage, infertility, second cancers and fear, and few services.
- Incentives reward me-too drugs and marginal gains · The system pays the same for a drug that adds two months as for a cure, so companies race to copy rather than to cure.
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not linked directly; found by shared links- TermMET-hours per week
Shares A dose-finding trial for exercise after cancer, CHALLENGE (CCTG CO.21), Structured exercise programmes after curative treatment, Exercise & lifestyle oncology.
- IdeaCombine the new anti-wasting antibody with exercise and protein
Shares CHALLENGE: a structured exercise programme after chemotherapy improves survival in colon cancer, Structured exercise prescribed like a drug in all curative-intent cancer care, Cachexia, toxicity and the limits of the patient, Exercise & lifestyle oncology.
- IdeaFour weeks of training and nutrition before major cancer surgery, as standard
Shares Structured exercise prescribed like a drug in all curative-intent cancer care, Cachexia, toxicity and the limits of the patient, Exercise & lifestyle oncology, Survivorship and late effects are neglected.
- IdeaTrials of structured cognitive rehabilitation for cancer-related cognitive impairment
Shares Structured exercise prescribed like a drug in all curative-intent cancer care, Exercise & lifestyle oncology, Survivorship and late effects are neglected.
- IdeaA survivorship research endowment funded by a levy on curative therapy prices
Shares Structured exercise prescribed like a drug in all curative-intent cancer care, Exercise & lifestyle oncology, Survivorship and late effects are neglected, HR-positive / HER2-negative breast cancer.
- IdeaSexual health assessed and treated as a standard toxicity domain
Shares Survivorship and late effects are neglected, Prostate cancer, HR-positive / HER2-negative breast cancer, Colorectal cancer.
- IdeaA public fund and label pathway to trial generic drugs against cancer
Shares Incentives reward me-too drugs and marginal gains, Prostate cancer, HR-positive / HER2-negative breast cancer, Colorectal cancer.
- IdeaTest protein and resistance training during immunotherapy
Shares Structured exercise prescribed like a drug in all curative-intent cancer care, Cachexia, toxicity and the limits of the patient, Exercise & lifestyle oncology.