Health & Fitness
Cancer Exercise: An Underutilized Aspect of Cancer Care
In 2005, my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. Luckily, the cancer was diagnosed in the early stages, and she underwent a mastectomy of the affected breast followed by radiation of the surrounding tissue. The treatment was considered successful, and she remains cancer-free today.
This being said, however, the disease and its treatments had other damaging long-term effects on her health. Approximately one year after treatment ended, she developed restrictive lung disease from the scar tissue that formed because of the radiation therapy. Lung disease has greatly diminished her quality of life because she has to use use oxygen throughout the day when her oxygen saturation levels are below normal range. As a result, she is unable to sustain even moderate levels of physical activity.
Guest blogger Arch Cox lives in Leesburg, VA and is the co-lead of Cancer CARE, the cancer exercise division of Oncology Rehab and Wellness Resources. To read Arch's full-text article, go to Survivor Blog: Talk About Cancer Rehab.