Dr. Kerry Courneya

Maybe I do need to take care of my health.

So oftentimes it prompts patients to say, what can I be doing to try to improve my health?

So some of it is just

The experience of a chronic disease can be very scary in thinking about taking your health more seriously than you might have done when you're focused on the prevention side of things.

So we motivate those guys by talking about the cancer-specific benefits.

As I say, if it's just improvements in fitness, just improvements in strength, yeah, these are the standard benefits that everybody gets.

But what about me?

And cancer patients are very concerned about their cancer.

Once you're diagnosed with breast cancer or liver cancer or brain cancer, you become focused on what kind of diet should I eat for someone with brain cancer?

What kind of exercise should I do with brain?

You're not interested in general health benefits.

So they want to know about these cancer-specific benefits.

And so we'll usually talk about those types of benefits to try and motivate them.

Say, hey, this might actually help with your cancer issues.

It might help with your treatments, getting through the treatments, recovering from treatments.

And of course, we always work with them where they're at.

We tell them, you know, we'll never ask you to do more exercise than you can do.

We'll progress you slowly.

We'll build you up to the prescription.

One of the other key things for cancer patients is the opinion of the oncologist.