History
The Cancer Exercise Training Centre was founded by:
Dr. Karen Gelmon, MD
(BC Cancer, UBC Faculty of Medicine)
Dr. Don McKenzie, MD, PhD
(UBC Faculty of Medicine & School of Kinesiology)
Dr. Kristin Campbell, BScPT, PhD
(UBC Faculty of Medicine, Dept. of Physical Therapy & BC Cancer – Cancer Control Research)
Cheri Van Patten, RD, MSc
(BC Cancer, UBC Faculty of Medicine)
Our team was the first to report several key findings:
- First to report that weight lifting during chemotherapy may help to improve chemotherapy completion rate (Courneya KS et al., J Clin Oncol 2007;25(28):4396-404)
- First to show improved survival in women randomized to undertake exercise during chemotherapy (Courneya KS, Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise 2014;46(9):1744-51.)
- First to show that exercise may reduced “chemo-brain” in women following treatment for breast cancer (Campbell KL, et al. Pyscho-Oncology 2017; Jan 11. doi: 10.1002/pon.4370. [Epub ahead of print])
- High-intensity, upper body activity (i.e., dragon boating) did not increase risk of developing lymphedema or worsening of lymphedema after surgery for breast cancer (McKenzie DC. CMAJ 1998; Harris et al. J Surg Oncol 2000; McKenzie DC et al. J Clin Oncol 2003)
- Potential of exercise to be “cardioprotective” in women receiving anthracycline chemotherapy for breast cancer treatment (Kirkham AA et al. Int J Cardiol. 2017; Kirkham AA et al. Breast Cancer Res Treat. 2017)
- Prospective surveillance can improvement management of lymphedema, as well as arm range of motion and upper extremity function after surgery for breast cancer (Rafn et al. Clin Rehab 2018)
- Women are accurate and reliable to measure their own arm circumference after surgery for breast cancer in lab and clinical setting (Rafn et al. Phys Ther 2019; Rafn et al. Phys Ther 2020)
