Kinesiology study aims to change chemotherapy recovery process

If the purpose of chemotherapy is to destroy cells—both cancerous and, as a side effect, non-cancerous—perhaps it makes sense for cancer patients to find a way to beef up healthy ones.

This is the hypothesis behind a proposed study in the University of Georgia College of Education's kinesiology department. Professor Kevin McCully, director of the Non-Invasive Exercise Muscle Physiology Lab, has joined forces with Athens oncologist Petros George Nikolinakos to study how exercise affects a patient's recovery after chemotherapy.

The study, which is contingent on funding from the National Institutes of Health, was the subject of a recent story by Georgia Health News.

The long-term goal, say McCully and Nikolinakos, is to make physical activity a standard part of recovery after chemotherapy. "We want to transform the way a cancer survivor is treated," says McCully.

_This story also appeared in the Athens Banner-Herald/OnlineAthens.com._