Funding the prescription for every cancer patient: exercise
2 min read 27 June 2025
“If the effects of exercise could be encapsulated in a pill, it would be prescribed to every cancer patient.”
For many people, the experience of cancer treatment is marked by the many unpleasant side effects and constantly feeling unwell.
Luckily, there is a simple and well-known way that people with cancer can improve their wellbeing during treatment: exercise.
Associate Professor Prue Cormie is a clinical exercise physiologist and researcher at Peter Mac. Passionate about the benefits of exercise during cancer treatment, A/Prof Cormie was awarded a Foundation grant to support her work to embed exercise into standard cancer care.
”Over the past two decades, clinical trial research has established that patients who exercise experience fewer side effects – such as fatigue, physical decline, and psychological distress – and have better quality of life,” says A/Prof Cormie.
Despite this evidence, many doctors and cancer care teams currently aren’t recommending exercise to patients. This in turn means that many cancer patients do not exercise and miss out on the benefits.
To address this, A/Prof Cormie and her research team are working to develop a toolkit that provides guidelines, information and support to empower cancer clinicians to ‘prescribe’ exercise to their patients. This will include guidance on how to help patients ‘fill the prescription’ and ensuring that patients receive tailored recommendations that suit their unique needs.
A/Prof Cormie’s hope is that every cancer patient can pursue exercise that suits their needs during their treatment.
“By giving all patients the same opportunity for a tailored exercise recommendation, patients can reap the benefits including less severe side-effects, better quality of life and potentially longer survival.”
