The Comeback

How cancer patients can return to running

Thursday, June 2, 2011, 12:00 am
Image by Sam Diephuis /Corbis

Every morning during his two-week breaks from chemotherapy treatments for medialstinal seminoma, Benjamin Byers would hit the track near his Mukilteo, Washington, home. There, with sweat rolling off his (bald) head, he felt normal. "Running was a break from the monotony of being a patient," says Byers, now 30 and cancer-free. To run like Byers, here's what cancer patients can do.

"Researchers have found that people who remain active during treatment--exercising when they feel good, resting when they feel bad--tolerate their treatment better than those who try to exercise every day or don't exercise at all," says Judith K. Wolf, M.D., professor of gynecologic oncology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. If you can't run, try walking. "You can still set goals, achieve them, and beat them," says Catherine Zeisner, 42, a runner in London, Ontario, with papillary carcinoma.

"After the first couple of chemo sessions, you learn how your body will respond--I was fatigued the third day after every treatment," says Carla Sylvester, 50, a three-time marathoner and breast-cancer survivor from Hoboken, New Jersey. "You learn to plan your life around the days when the side effects hit." In Byers's case, chemo often made his mouth feel like it was on fire, so he hydrated while running with a water-salt mixture that eased the burn.

Both radiation and chemo can accelerate bone loss. Wolf recommends taking vitamin D and 1,500 milligrams of calcium daily, and strength training one to three times per week during and after treatment, depending on your energy level. "Strong muscles will help relieve stress on your bones," she says.

It generally takes about twice the length of your treatment to get back to your former running self, says Wolf. So if you had radiation for three months, plan on at least six months before regaining your previous fitness level.


This article is part of our special feature, Outrunning Cancer.