Cancer patients should don their men's or women's fitness clothing and find ways to be physically active both during and after treatment, new guidelines in the US suggest.

Dr Kathryn Schmitz, an associate professor of epidemiology andbiostatistics and a member of the Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, is to present these guidelines at the 2010 meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

She would like to see exercise become as common in cancer rehabilitation programmes as it is in rehab offered to people who have suffered heart attacks or undergone cardiac surgery.

Dr Schmitz said it is necessary to stop doctors from believing that exercise is harmful to cancer patients.

"There is a still a prevailing attitude out there that patients shouldn't push themselves during treatment, but our message - avoid inactivity - is essential," she added.

Last month, Tam Fry, National Obesity Forum board member and chair of the Child Growth Foundation, highlighted the fact that inactivity can also cause cancer.

Posted by Tina Wilson ADNFCR-2569-ID-19815463-ADNFCR

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