Cancer patients missing out on exercise as healthcare providers not adding it to treatment plans

A majority of oncology healthcare providers are not giving exercise guidance to their patients despite extensive research proving the benefits for people living with cancer, according to a new WA study.

Edith Cowan University research has revealed less than half of healthcare professionals were recommending exercise and referring their cancer patients to exercise specialists.

This comes despite the Clinical Oncology Society of Australia recommending exercise should be a standard part of cancer care since 2018.

COSA provides guidelines encouraging all health professionals to talk about the benefits of exercise with cancer patients and refer patients to an exercise specialist.

Out of the 133 oncology healthcare providers surveyed, 94 per cent agreed exercise would be beneficial to cancer patients but only 35 per cent were routinely following the COSA guidelines.

Almost 70 per cent of the healthcare providers said there was a lack of resources on how to deliver exercise guidance to patients, and more than half believed that an exercise plan was not an important part of their role.

In Australia, subsidised allied health services including exercise programs are available to people with cancer through Medicare but 12 per cent of providers surveyed did not know this was an option for their patients.

ECU postdoctoral research fellow Mary Kennedy said a common reason why oncology healthcare providers were hesitant to provide exercise guidance was their belief they were not best placed to provide this type of care.

“What we’re finding is that despite the fact we’ve got clinicians recognising the value of exercise, it’s still not actually happening as part of care,” she said.

“Most participants said that the referrals were really challenging and that’s in large part because we don’t have a system to refer to exercise professionals.

“COSA’s call for action is broad so that leaves a lot of room for people to say, well exercise is important but it’s not my job.

“That’s where these implementation strategies need to come in, being really clear about whose role it is and what they need to do, and then making sure the systems have the resources in place to allow them to actually provide that level of care.”

Dr Kennedy is now working on creating a referral strategy in the South West to allow cancer patients in the region to access exercise programs through a Future Health Research Innovation Fund grant, as well as implementing exercise referral programs across eight other clinical sites in WA through Cancer Council funding.