Exercise Oncology

Exercise oncology represents the field of exercise medicine applied to the management of cancer, known for its supportive role across the disease trajectory (localized to advanced) and lifespan (pediatrics, adolescents and young adults, adults, and geriatrics). Exercise oncology continues to evolve, with emerging evidence highlighting the potential synergistic and targeted effects of exercise medicine to enhance symptom control, promote the effectiveness of conventional cancer therapies, modulate tumor biology, delay disease progression, and increase overall survival; warranting concentrated and global research efforts.

The MASCC Exercise Oncology Subgroup, established mid-2021, works to improve outcomes for people affected by cancer (i.e., people with cancer, and their informal caregivers), through promoting excellence in clinical practice, education materials, and research. In particular, the MASCC Exercise Oncology Subgroup aims to bring together expertise from around the world (across low-to-middle, and high-resource countries) to address the needs of people affected by cancer. We welcome members from all health professions and backgrounds.

Our group welcomes ad-hoc submissions from our members concerning project ideas and work agendas that the MASCC Exercise Oncology Subgroup can help facilitate, or co-operatively develop (please contact Dr Nicolas Hart or Dr Dagmara Poprawski directly). To that end, this subgroup plans to initially focus efforts on the following 5 priority areas:

1. People affected by advanced or metastatic cancer.
2. Virtual health exercise solutions for rural and regional areas.
3. Implementation science – embedding exercise into cancer care.
4. Targeted exercise to optimize prehabilitation and cancer rehabilitation.
5. Collaboration with other MASCC Study Groups to address multifactorial needs of people affected by cancer.