Christopher M. Booth
Oncologist who co-led CHALLENGE and founded Common Sense Oncology to refocus trials on outcomes that matter to patients.
Overview
Christopher Booth (Queen's University, Canada) was co-principal investigator of the CHALLENGE trial showing exercise improves survival after colon cancer, and founded Common Sense Oncology, an international movement arguing that trials should measure overall survival and quality of life, avoid weak surrogate endpoints and address affordability. His health services research examines the real-world value of new cancer drugs.
| Title | Journal | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Structured exercise after adjuvant chemotherapy for colon cancer (CHALLENGE) | NEJM | 2025 |
| Common Sense Oncology: outcomes that matter | Lancet Oncology | 2023 |
For colon cancer survivors, a prescribed, supported exercise programme is now an evidence-based treatment with a survival benefit comparable to many drugs. Health systems will need to fund exercise consultants as they fund chemotherapy. The trial does not tell us whether unsupervised advice achieves the same.
A drug that shrinks tumours or delays progression on scans has not necessarily been shown to help patients live longer or better. Patients and clinicians should ask what the endpoint was; regulators should insist on timely confirmatory trials; and trialists should validate surrogates before relying on them.
Pages like this
not linked directly; found by shared links- PersonKerry S. Courneya
Shares CHALLENGE: a structured exercise programme after chemotherapy improves survival in colon cancer, CHALLENGE (CCTG CO.21), Exercise & lifestyle oncology, Colorectal cancer and the tag exercise.
- IdeaPay for supervised exercise the way we pay for drugs
Shares CHALLENGE: a structured exercise programme after chemotherapy improves survival in colon cancer, CHALLENGE (CCTG CO.21), Exercise & lifestyle oncology, Colorectal cancer.
- PersonIan F. Tannock
Shares Prasad: most surrogate endpoints in cancer trials correlate poorly with survival and the tag evidence.
- IdeaCombine the new anti-wasting antibody with exercise and protein
Shares CHALLENGE: a structured exercise programme after chemotherapy improves survival in colon cancer, Exercise & lifestyle oncology, Colorectal cancer.
- TermMET-hours per week
Shares CHALLENGE (CCTG CO.21), Exercise & lifestyle oncology.
- IdeaA dose-finding trial for exercise after cancer
Shares CHALLENGE (CCTG CO.21), Exercise & lifestyle oncology, Colorectal cancer.
- IdeaStructured exercise prescribed like a drug in all curative-intent cancer care
Shares CHALLENGE: a structured exercise programme after chemotherapy improves survival in colon cancer, CHALLENGE (CCTG CO.21), Exercise & lifestyle oncology, Colorectal cancer.
- IdeaMultimodal prehabilitation for older patients before major cancer surgery