A "relatively high" percentage of brain tumour patients are exercising - before and after diagnosis and treatment - at the recommended levels, a much higher percentage than patients with other forms of cancer, suggest the results of a survey of 106 brain tumour patients treated at the Brain Tumor Center at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.
According to Dr Lee W. Jones and colleagues, prior to diagnosis, 42 percent of patients reported engaging in at least 150 minutes of strenuous or moderate exercise each week.
Brain tumour patients appear to represent a "proactive" group when it comes to exercise, Jones and colleagues report. It's been estimated, for example, that only 5 to 16 percent of patients with other cancers, such as breast cancer and colon cancer, exercise at the recommended levels during treatment, and only 20 to 31 percent exercise during off-treatment periods.
The relatively young age of brain tumour patients may have something to do with their high levels of exercise, the authors note. The average age of the patients in the current survey was 44 years.