AICR Grant Recipient Kristin Campbell BSc, PT, PhD is a licensed physical therapist and a professor in the Department of Physical Therapy at the University of British Columbia (BC). She also holds an appointment in the Cancer Control Program at the BC Cancer Research Center.
Dr. Campbell’s research is focused on understanding the role of exercise in reducing risk of cancer, and the role of physical therapy and exercise to improve the physical function, quality of life and survival of cancer survivors.
AICR spoke with Dr. Campbell about her journey and current research.
Dr. Campbell’s Journey
Dr. Campbell says that in high school, her favorite subject was biology. She also loved playing sports, so becoming a physical therapist was a logical career.
In the 1990s, her interest in physical therapy and women’s health coincided with the emerging research on the potential role of exercise as a modifiable factor for breast cancer risk. This combination set her on the path to better understand the biology of exercise for cancer prevention, and later into the field of cancer rehabilitation.
Current Research
Dr. Campbell says that the funding from AICR allows her team to better understand the impact of exercise after a cancer diagnosis, specifically related to changes in body composition.
“There is emerging research that for early-stage cancer, a loss of muscle mass during and after treatment is associated with poorer all-cause and cancer specific mortality,” says Dr. Campbell. “One potential intervention to address this issue is targeted exercise interventions that could limit the amount of muscle loss or to help individuals to gain muscle during, and just following, cancer treatments.”
Her current project takes advantage of a very large exercise study in people with stage II–III colon cancer. While the original study looks at the effect of the intervention on cancer outcomes, her team is looking specifically at unique measures of body composition using computer-tomography (CT) scans.
This allows them to look at the amount and quality of muscle and body fat distribution to better understand the potential effect exercise can have on biological markers of poorer outcomes.
Dr. Campbell is appreciative of AICR’s funding, which comes from supporters like you. “Without AICR’s supporters, much of this important work could be overlooked, and people facing cancer would not be able to make informed lifestyle choices to reduce their cancer risk or how to thrive after a cancer diagnosis,” says Dr. Campbell.
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