The stronger the muscles of cancer patients, the greater their chances of survival.

Individual exercises aimed at enhancing muscle strength and cardiorespiratory fitness in patients with cancer may help increase their chances of survival, researchers believe.

In 2022 alone, cancer was diagnosed in 20 million people worldwide, with nearly 10 million succumbing to the disease. Experts predict that this trend will continue to rise in the coming decades.

Despite notable advances in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer, treatment side effects, including impacts on the heart and muscles, can adversely affect survival rates, they add.

To gather information on potential options for improving survival among those diagnosed with cancer, researchers aimed to determine whether muscle strength and cardiorespiratory fitness are associated with a lower risk of death in such patients, as well as whether the type and stage of cancer influence survival.

They conducted a search for relevant studies published in English before August 2023 and included 42 of them in a meta-analysis involving approximately 47,000 patients (average age 64 years) with various types and stages of cancer.

Low muscle strength (measured by handgrip strength) was classified as less than 13 kg to less than 25 kg for women and less than 20 kg to less than 40 kg for men.

Cardiorespiratory fitness was assessed using a cardiopulmonary exercise test (CPET) or a 6-minute walk test.

The combined analysis of the study results indicated that both muscle strength and cardiorespiratory fitness were significantly associated with the risk of death from any cause and, specifically, from cancer.

Compared to patients with low muscle strength and low cardiorespiratory fitness, those at the opposite end of the spectrum had a 31%–46% lower risk of death from any cause.

Moreover, with each incremental increase in muscle strength by one point, this risk decreased by an additional 11%.

Furthermore, this combination of strength and fitness was linked to an 8%–46% reduction in the risk of death from any cause among patients with advanced cancer (stages 3 and 4) and a 19%–41% reduction among patients with lung or gastrointestinal cancers.

Additionally, each one-point increase in fitness level was associated with an 18% reduction in the risk of death from cancer.

“Our findings suggest that muscle strength could be utilized in clinical practice to assess mortality risk in patients with late-stage cancer, and thus, strength training exercises may be employed to enhance longevity,” researchers conclude.