UW-Madison’s Lisa Cadmus-Bertram recently appeared on Wisconsin Public Radio’s “The Larry Meiller Show” to talk about a research project she is leading that is examining how to motivate cancer patients to become more physically active.
Cadmus-Bertram is an assistant professor with the School of Education’s Department of Kinesiology. She directs the Wisconsin Physical Activity Epidemiology Lab and is a member of the Cancer Prevention and Control program at the UW Carbone Cancer Center, where the clinical trial is housed.
Speaking during a segment titled, “Fighting Cancer with Exercise,” Cadmus-Bertram explains to Meiller that evidence suggests women who are more active are less likely to develop cancer. Similarly, there is good evidence suggesting that physical activity after a diagnosis can be protecting of negative outcomes after a cancer diagnosis.
The 12-week randomized trial is enrolling 50 breast and colorectal cancer survivors, with half being placed in a control group while the remaining will participate in an intervention group. Patients in the control group receive standard follow-up care and a survivorship plan.
Patients in in the intervention group receive the same care as the control group, but also will receive a Fitbit and online coaching. The daily step count data from the Fitbit will be uploaded to the patient’s MyChart account and can be monitored by their physician.
“In the context of cancer survivorship, we’re interested in the actual physiological influences of cancer on the body and how that might relate to eventual risk of cancer recurrence or mortality,” Cadmus-Bertram tells Meiller. “But there is also huge amounts of evidence showing that physical activity is very beneficial for reducing fatigue, for reducing depression and anxiety, and for improving quality of life among cancer survivors. Sometimes those are considered secondary outcomes but they are really extraordinarily important to people’s day-to-day lives.”
To learn much more about Cadmus-Bertram and her important research, listen to an archive of her appearance on “The Larry Meiller Show” via this WPR.org web page.