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For patients that have been diagnosed with colon cancer, there may be some good news awaiting them. A new research said that there is a big chance to reduce the disease by maintaining a healthy body weight, regular physical exercises, and eating a diet high in whole grains, fruits and vegetables.

How Healthy Lifestyle Can Be Very Beneficial

A study has recently been conducted by researchers from the University of California and San Francisco (UCSF) on several patients with stage III colon cancer. Patients who maintained a healthy lifestyle, maintained a healthy body weight, engaged in regular exercise, and ate a diet rich in whole grains, fruits and vegetables had a 42 percent reduced risk for death.

They also had a trend for a lower chance of recurrence compared with the patients with less healthy lifestyles. This is what said by Erin L. Van Blarigan, Assistant Professor in the UCSF.

According to Economic Times, the researchers were working on 335 people with colon cancer recurrences. 256 of whom already died due to critical condition. Additional 43 patients also died during the study from other causes.

In the study, the researchers gave the patients a score from zero to six measuring the degree to which their lifestyle matched the American Cancer Society guidelines. Only nine percent of them had the aforementioned healthy lifestyle that closely matched the guidelines, indicated by a score of five or six, as also stated by CancerNetwork.

Survival Has Increased More Than Before

According to a member of the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Centre, Van Blarigan, the United States is presently having more than one million colorectal cancer survivors. Although the disease still remains the second leading cause of cancer death, still the patients are living longer than ever before. There is an absolute requirement for resources to assist the patients in maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

ASCO President Daniel F. Hayes, MD said that a healthy lifestyle should be considered a substitute for standard chemotherapy and various other treatments for colon cancer. Maintaining a healthy lifestyle has dramatically improved survival.