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PACS lab overview
Our lab is focused on physical activity, aerobic and muscle strengthening exercise for cancer survivors. Our mission is to help improve the lives of cancer survivors using exercise in research contexts. We also aim to advance our understanding of the specific benefits of activity in cancer survivors by contributing original research to the overall evidence base. To accomplish this mission, we use both epidemiologic and interventional study designs.
Both physical activity and exercise are potent health behaviors that are necessary and extraordinarily important for cancer survivors. Aerobic and muscle strengthening exercise is recommended for cancer survivors to reap maximal health benefits. Despite these recommendations, participation rates in these exercise behaviors are low, especially for muscle strengthening exercise. Our focus on the importance of muscle strengthening exercise for survivors comes from a position of empowering the person, using health promotion approaches to help reduce treatment related symptoms to focus on health through strength.
About me - Dr. Jessica (Jess) Gorzelitz
Equal parts kinesiology and epidemiology applied to cancer survivorship. My research focuses on the importance of physical activity in cancer survivorship, with special emphasis on gynecologic oncology and the importance of muscle-strengthening exercise.
I have my academic preparation all from the University of Wisconsin - Madison including formal preparation in kinesiology, epidemiology, population health, and physical activity epidemiology. After my doctorate, I completed the Cancer Prevention Fellowship Program at the National Cancer Institute within the Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics where I advanced my cancer epidemiology training through studies of cohort estimates of muscle strengthening exercise and physical activity.
Now at the University of Iowa, I direct the Physical Activity and Cancer Survivorship (PACS) lab where we use distance-delivered behavioral change approaches to advance physical activity behaviors in individuals with a cancer history.
What is cancer survivorship?
"In cancer, survivorship focuses on the health and well-being of a person with cancer from the time of diagnosis until the end of life. This includes the physical, mental, emotional, social, and financial effects of cancer that begin at diagnosis and continue through treatment and beyond. The survivorship experience also includes issues related to follow-up care (including regular health and wellness checkups), late effects of treatment, cancer recurrence, second cancers, and quality of life. Family members, friends, and caregivers are also considered part of the survivorship experience." Source: NCI
In our lab, we use exercise and physical activity to address some of these specific considerations including late effects of treatment, quality of life, physical and mental aspects of cancer survivorship.
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