Table 2.

The positive effects of exercise in colorectal cancer survivors

Study	Sample size	conditions	Type of exercise	Major finding	Refs.
Ligibel (2012)	237 patients	stage I–III CRC survivors	180 min of moderate-intensity physical activity	Survivors enrolled in a multicenter, telephonebased physical activity intervention increased physical activity and experienced significant improvements in fitness and physical functioning	[90]
Cheville (2013)	66 patients	Stage IV CRC survivors	8 weeks incremental walking and home-based strength training	A home-based exercise program seems capable of improving the mobility, fatigue, and sleep quality of patients with Stage IV lung and colorectal cancer	[91]
Chung (2013)	431 pateints	Mean age of 58 years old	Strenuous, moderate and mild physical activity	Survivorswho were older or received chemotherapy increased their total PA and mild intensity PA after the completion of treatment	[79]
Sellar (2013)	888 pateitns	stage II or III CRC survivors	12-week supervised exercise intervention	Exercise training was found to be feasible and improved many aspects of health related physical fitness in CRC survivors that may be associated with improved quality of life and survival in these individuals	[81]
Courneya et al. (2014)	250 patients	High-risk stage II or stage III CRC survivors	A three-year exercise program	The Colon Health and Life- Long Exercise Change (CHALLENGE) trial was proven to be effective as a randomized controlled trial assessing the effect of an exercise program on disease-free survival	[92]
Grimmett (2015)	29 patients	Patietns over 18 years old who had recently completed treatment within the last 6 months	12 week intervention for increasing physical activity	Meaningful improvement in quality of life was observed	[86]
Husson (2015)	6446 patients	Mean age of 71 years, stage I–III CRC survivors	Physical activities including walking, bicycling, gardening, housekeeping, and sports	Pateitns with PA have higher on the global quality of life, physical, role, cognitive, emotional, and social functioning over time Finding underlines the importance to focus upon training in survivorship care and strategies to get inactive cancer survivors physically active	[93]
Courneya (2016)	273 patients	High-risk stage II and III colon cancer survivors	Gradually increase recreational PA from baseline by 10 MET hours/week	The behavior change intervention produced a substantial increase in selfreported recreational PA that met the feasibility criterion for trial continuation, resulted in objective fitness improvements, and is consistent with the amount of PA associated with improved colon cancer outcomes in observational studies	[94]
Grote (2016)	11 patients	N/A	Blended aerobic and resistance training (CART) three days per week for 13 weeks	The study revealed a close relationship between CART and cancer survivors’ cardiometabolic health After 13 weeks of training, participants experienced an average decrease in waist circumference Decrease in waist circumference was associated with a decrease in CRP	[95]
Fisher et al. (2016)	495 patients	Patients who were between 6 months and 5 years post-diagnosis with non-metastasised disease	Post-diagnosis PA	The findings indicated the benefits of PA following cancer treatment, while also identifying barriers to effective implementation	[96]
Cantarero-Villanueva (2017)	46 patients	older than 18 years, stage II–III CRC survivors	Lumbopelvic Exercise Program	PA improves musculoskeletal conditions in the lumbopelvic area of CRC patients, specifically in terms of pain and internal oblique thickness	[97]
Chen et al. (2017)	116 pateitns	Elderly patients prepared for CRC surgery	Four-week trimodal rehabilitation program	The results indicated that the trimodal rehabilitation program had a positive effect on levels of PA, as well as on functional walking ability The results indicate the potential to improve PA and physical function among elderly cancer patients	[98]
Forbes et al. (2017)	95 patients	N/A	Internet-delivered, distance-based PA	The Internet-based program was proven to have a negative impact on cancer survivors’ motivation	[99]
Brown (2016 and 2017, 2018)	39 patients	Stage I–III CRC survivors	150 min/wk of aerobic exercise (low dose) and 300 min/wk of aerobic exercise (high dose) for 6 months	Aerobic exercise reduces visceral adipose tissue in dose–response fashion among patients with stage I–III CRC Visceral adipose tissue may be a mechanism through which exercise reduces the risk of disease recurrence among CRC survivors	[100–102]
Devin (2016 and 2018)	47 patients	Post-treatment CRC survivors	4 weeks of moderate intensity exercise (MIE) and high intensity exercise (HIE) training	In response to short-term training, HIE is a safe, feasible and efficacious intervention that offers clinically meaningful improvements in cardiorespiratory fitness and body composition for colorectal cancer survivors	[83, 103]