The Review of the Studies on Exercise Programs for Cancer Patients

Abstract

Currently in South Korea, as long as the exercise is related with cancer, the exercise has been considered just as one of the useful life habits to prevent cancer and as an assisting method to endure the difficult treatment process of cancer with providing physical strength and strong will even in the clinic field. This study intended to provide the help for cancer prevention and treatment based on the review on the exercise programs for cancer patients that have been reported in the precedent studies; furthermore, it has been found that it is critical that the goal of exercise treatment according to the conditions of patients has to be determined in advance, in results of considering the precedent studies in order to contribute to raise the awareness of the role of exercise as the treatment method of cancer. Exercise program needs to be structured after determining the goals of exercise by considering the physical limitations that can be caused not only by cancer itself, but by the damages in the treatment process. For cancer patients, the goals of exercise need to be differentiated in each stage of treatment process; for the patients who are undergoing treatment, the goals of exercise become the maintenance of physical strength and emotional stability; and for those who completed anticancer treatment and got rid of cancer cells, the goals of exercise become the returning to ordinary life and the prevention from relapse. Before beginning the exercise program, it is significant to gather the information to secure the safety during exercising, to select the types of exercises that are customized for the patients and to establish exercise programs. Even though the exercise therapy methods that are specialized according to each cancer have not been established, it has been reported that exercise is closely related to the prevention from and treatment of cancer and it is considered that exercise therapy will be one of the important methods to treat cancer.