SAN ANTONIO (February 6, 2012) – Climbing stairs again. Lost weight. Better sleep. More energy. Cancer survivors who have joined supervised exercise programs report all these benefits. They often also report that at first, they don’t know how to begin.
“It can be scary to start back exercising after cancer treatment,” said Stacey Young-McCaughan, R.N., Ph.D., a professor in the department of psychiatry in the School of Medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center. “You’re not sure what your new normal is, and how far you can push yourself now. You can really push yourself farther than you think, and we are here to help you.”
On Thursday, Feb. 9, from 6 – 7:30 p.m., Dr. Young-McCaughan will give a free public lecture on the benefits of exercise for cancer patients. She will talk about the latest research and discuss the fitness program for cancer survivors she has created at the Cancer Therapy & Research Center. Survivors currently participating in the program will also be available to tell their stories and the impact of exercise in their recovery from cancer and cancer treatment.
“Exercise is good for the general population. We now know it’s good for cancer patients as well,” she said.
The fitness center program, for which all cancer survivors are eligible regardless of where they sought treatment, provides people with individualized assessments and exercise regimens and allows them to work out at the CTRC with family members and fellow cancer survivors.
“One size doesn’t fit all, and a lot of times you learn from other people,” Dr. Young-McCaughan said.
The lecture will be at the CTRC, 4th floor of the Grossman Building, 7979 Wurzbach Rd., San Antonio. For more information, call 210-450-1152.
This is part of a series of free CTRC monthly public lectures on cancer designed for the general public. The series is sponsored by H-E-B and the Institute for the Integration of Medicine and Science at the UT Health Science Center San Antonio.
On March 8, the topic will be Cures for Cancer in Nature, led by researchers Susan Mooberry, Ph.D., and Pratap Kumar, Ph.D., who are both investigating the potentially curative properties in plants.
The Cancer Therapy & Research Center (CTRC) at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio is one of the elite academic cancer centers in the country to be named a National Cancer Institute (NCI) Designated Cancer Center, and is one of only four in Texas. A leader in developing new drugs to treat cancer, the CTRC Institute for Drug Development (IDD) conducts one of the largest oncology Phase I clinical drug programs in the world, and participates in development of cancer drugs approved by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration. For more information, visit www.ctrc.net.