For more than 15 years, I've had the privilege of building and teaching PALS for LIFE at UVAC, working with women living with and beyond breast cancer. During that time, I've watched the conversation around exercise and cancer evolve.
Exercise has long been recognized for helping people manage fatigue, maintain strength, improve physical function and support quality of life. But we're learning more about its potential role in cancer care itself.
A 2026 review of 21 randomized clinical trials involving more than 8,400 people with cancer found that structured exercise was associated with improved overall survival and disease-free survival, along with lower all-cause and cancer-specific mortality. While more research is needed, the findings add to growing evidence that exercise may be an important part of cancer care — not simply something that happens after treatment.
This is also the focus of Moving Through Cancer, an initiative led by exercise oncology researcher Dr. Kathryn Schmitz. The goal is to make appropriate exercise assessment, guidance and participation a more standard part of cancer care.
And one of the most important ideas behind this work is simple: Exercise should meet you where you are.
While much of the research around exercise and cancer includes multiple types of cancer, our Cancer Survivorship work at UVAC currently focuses specifically on breast cancer. That's where our experience, programming and expertise have been concentrated, and where we've had the privilege of supporting women throughout recovery and survivorship.
Our Cancer Survivorship umbrella includes PALS for LIFE, a 16-week program for women living with and beyond breast cancer, and RISE — Recovery, Integrity, Strength & Endurance, our ongoing survivorship exercise program.
The workouts aren't about pushing someone through a generic exercise routine. They're about finding the right movement, at the right dose, for the right person.
Some days that might mean strength training. Some days it's the pool. Some days it's modifying an exercise because treatment, surgery, fatigue or lymphedema has changed what someone's body can do.
And that's okay.
Progress doesn't always mean doing more. Sometimes progress is simply showing up.
After 15 years of PALS for LIFE, that's one of the things I continue to appreciate most about this work. We don't just exercise together. We learn how to move forward together.
This Breast Cancer Awareness Month, I'm proud that UVAC can be part of a growing movement that recognizes exercise as an important component of cancer care and survivorship.
Recovery. Integrity. Strength. Endurance. Community.
That's Cancer Survivorship at UVAC.
Want to learn more?
- Moving Through Cancer — American College of Sports Medicine
- Schmitz KH, et al. Moving Through Cancer: Setting the agenda to make exercise standard in oncology practice.
- 2026 British Journal of Sports Medicine systematic review on exercise and cancer survival outcomes
Erin K. Buck
Fitness and Personal Training Director
PALS for Life Director VT/NH