Study: Daily exercise may help prevent and control cancer

But, Schmitz said health care professionals can also customise exercise prescriptions to individual patients. Exercise prescriptions can be personalised "Through our research, we've reached a point where we can give specific FITT exercise prescriptions - which means frequency, intensity, time and type - for specific outcomes like quality of life, fatigue, pain, and others," Schmitz said.

"For example, if we're seeing a head and neck cancer patient with a specific set of symptoms, we could give them an exercise prescription personalised to them." The recommendations are one result of a roundtable of experts formed by Schmitz and the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) to review the latest scientific evidence and offer recommendations about the benefits of exercise for prevention, treatment, recovery and improved survival for people living with and beyond cancer.

Schmitz said the second piece of the initiative is resources and programs to help get people with and beyond cancer moving. The Moving Through Cancer website has an exercise program registry that can help patients, families, health care providers and others find programs near them.

The final piece is policy, Schmitz said, which could be used to increase the likelihood that health care professionals will talk to their patients about exercise and that patients will be adequately referred to as they move through cancer.

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