Associate Professor Nicolas Hart
UTS' new Program Director in Clinical Exercise Physiology, Associate Professor Nicolas Hart, is a passionate advocate for exercise and movement in improving health.
He has been awarded a five-year $1.5 million NHMRC Emerging Leader fellowship to further his globally-recognised research into how specific types of exercise slow tumour growth for cancers that have spread to the bones, while improving health outcomes for these patients with advanced cancer.
“There’s a wealth of knowledge about the benefits of exercise in people with early stage and curable cancers. But people with advanced and metastatic cancers were simply not included in this research – they were often considered too sick, too fragile or unsafe to exercise. This is problematic given targeted exercise may slow tumour growth," Associate Professor Hart says.
People with advanced cancer deserve inclusion, care, and support with exercise. I've been helping these people to access the benefits of exercise through developing safe and feasible programs.
- Associate Professor Nicolas Hart
"Now, I'll be evaluating whether these targeted exercises successfully reduce the growth of their cancer that has spread to bones; and whether this effectively changes tumour biological processes in support of their other cancer treatments such as chemotherapy.”
Associate Professor Hart’s journey to improving cancer patients lives began during his stints with the AFL, as a professional sports scientist with the Fremantle Dockers and consultant sports scientist to the West Coast Eagles and other teams or individual athletes.
The knowledge he gained across biomechanics, bone strength and fractures led him on a decade-long journey to make difference to people with cancers that have spread to the bones.
“If you think about elite athletes, they have the best possible health and provide us with the optimal prototype for how exercise influences human structure and function," he says.
"Surprisingly, a lot of their exercise variables are similar to people with cancer or other chronic diseases and they can give us great insight into how to stimulate particular biological outcomes for patients."
Associate Professor Hart’s fellowship will focus on studying how exercise impacts tumour growth and disease biology in metastatic cancers, while seeking to use exercise to synergise with other cancer treatments and extend the overall survival time of patients.
Importantly, he is exploring sustainable implementation frameworks to embed exercise alongside more conventional treatments for people with advanced cancers.
“It’s one thing for us to find that exercise is effective, but another to get the health system to support these interventions in the long term. We’re asking questions around how we get people referred, how do we get them to exercise appropriately, and how cost effective these interventions are.”
But Associate Professor Hart firmly believes the clinical and overall well-being benefits of exercise are obvious.
“People with advanced cancer often say that everyone else does something for them, or to them, to help their treatment and general health. They also say exercise lets them do something for themselves rather than simply being passive," he says.
"Exercise gives them control, a sense of purpose and the chance to get together with friends to do things together."
Associate Professor Nicolas Hart is the Chair of Exercise Oncology for the Multinational Association of Support Care in Cancer (MASCC), a member of the World Health Organisations’ (WHO) Cancer Rehabilitation Development Group. He is also Deputy Chair of Survivorship of the Clinical Oncology Society of Australia (COSA). He can be contacted at Nicolas.Hart@uts.edu.au
