CETI has trained more than 20,000 health and fitness professionals across 60 countries to work safely with cancer patients and survivors.
Curriculum guided by a 23-member Medical Advisory Board including Dr. Anna L. Schwartz, PhD, FNP-BC, FAAN, a co-author of the ACSM Guidelines for Cancer Survivors, and Dr. Shawna Willey, MD, Peterson Chair of Breast Cancer Research at Inova Schar Cancer Institute.
There are more cancer survivors alive today than at any point in history — and many are told to exercise by an oncologist with nobody nearby to refer them to.
General fitness certifications don’t cover surgical contraindications, lymphedema risk, treatment side effects, or how any of it changes what’s safe to program. That gap is why survivors go untrained, why hospitals often have nowhere to refer, and why demand for qualified specialists outstrips supply in most regions.
1 IARC / GLOBOCAN 2022, five-year global cancer prevalence. 2 American Cancer Society, Cancer Treatment & Survivorship Statistics 2025 (as of 1 January 2025). 3 CDC Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, 2023 — 76.4% of US adults, approximately 194 million people.
Start free and see the material for yourself, or ask Andrea directly whether this fits what you do.
The colorectal cancer section is free. The full qualification is $999, or six payments of $168. Fourteen-day refund if it isn’t right for you.
Four things change when you become the person in your area trained for this — and each one matters to somebody different.
General certifications don’t cover surgical contraindications, lymphedema risk, or how treatment changes what is safe to program. Almost nobody in your market holds one that does.
That makes you the person an oncology team can refer to, rather than one practitioner among many justifying a rate. For a hospital or facility, the same holds at organizational scale.
There are more cancer survivors alive today than at any point in history, and many are told to exercise by an oncologist with nobody nearby to refer them to.
Qualifying puts you in that gap — whether that means sliding-scale places, a partnership with a local cancer charity, or simply becoming the name your community passes around.
Referrals arrive from cancer centers, nurse navigators and survivorship coordinators rather than from advertising, so the pipeline is steadier and clients stay longer.
It opens work hourly sessions do not: small groups, senior living programs, hospital wellness, and virtual sessions for immunocompromised clients.
CETI publishes no earnings figure, because we have not surveyed our graduates to establish one.
Many specialists come to this for one person — a mother in treatment, a long-standing client with a diagnosis nobody prepared them for, their own recurrence.
The qualification tells you what the surgery did, what the treatment is doing now, which movements to avoid and which to rebuild, and when to refer rather than program. You stop guessing on behalf of someone you love.
Build a specialty almost no one in your market has — and a reason for physicians to send you clients.
See the course path →Add evidence-based exercise programming to the clinical care you already deliver, across the full treatment continuum.
See the course path →Train your staff, build a survivorship program, or bring CETI into your curriculum. Group rates and custom cohorts available.
Request a consultation →Some of the best specialists started as patients, or as the person sitting beside one. No clinical background is required to qualify — several of the specialists further down this page began exactly there.
How survivors become specialists →Most certifications end at the exam. The Everything Package includes a personalized business launch plan, built on 24 years of what has actually worked for CETI’s most successful specialists.
Private training, small groups, virtual sessions, onsite senior living programs, workshops, and screenings.
Package menus, premium client value, break-even framing, renewals, memberships, and group upside.
Local population, survivor estimates, cash-pay segment, anchor cancer centers, revenue opportunity, local charities, and financial aid.
A prioritized, tiered list of real local referral contacts — cancer centers, nurse navigators, survivorship coordinators — plus scripts, collateral, and follow-up cadence.
Andrea teaches this curriculum in person — certification courses, hospital in-services, university programs and conference workshops, on four continents. To discuss bringing one to your organization, call her directly on 1-503-502-6776 or send a message.
Colorectal cancer — the surgical procedures, what each one leaves behind, the acute and chronic side effects, the contraindications, and how to program around all of it.
Not a summary. Not a sample chapter. One complete diagnosis, exactly as it appears in the 15th Edition, and one of the twenty-six cancer types in the full qualification.
It is the third most commonly diagnosed cancer and one of the most likely to walk into your studio. A resection changes core function, abdominal loading and what a client can tolerate after eating. Almost no general certification covers it.
Free to join. No payment, no commitment.
It costs nothing and asks nothing of you.
By the end you will know how to work safely with one of them — and exactly how much you did not know before you started.
If the depth is what you want, the full qualification is the same standard across every diagnosis.
Every path begins with the same free section. Go as far as your practice needs.
One complete diagnosis, taught exactly as it appears in the curriculum. No cost, no commitment.
Foundational exercise programming across 25+ cancer types, with exam.
The flagship. 600+ pages, 19 core videos, six expert lecturers, four modules, exam, and Advanced Qualification. Self-study or monthly Zoom cohort.
Specialize in your modality. The Pilates qualification carries 40 NPCP CEUs.
Focused specialty qualification with videos, modules, and a 90-question exam.
Twelve courses, the personalized business launch plan, three 1-on-1 business coaching sessions with Greg Hendrickson, CETI’s CMO and Business Advisor, and a 2-year directory listing. Over $4,500 in value.
Released August 2026. Four modules covering 26 of the most common cancer types plus childhood cancer.
What cancer is, staging, genetics, the immune system and the human biome. Surgical incisions and procedures for 26 of the most common cancer types plus childhood cancer, with their acute and chronic side effects and contraindications. And the human side — the five stages of grief, what to say to a friend or loved one, and being a caregiver. Includes a welcome from Dr. Jay Harness and Dr. LaGary Carter on “Exercise as Medicine.”
Types of breast cancer and risk factors, recommended surgeries, treatment and reconstruction, with the side effects, complications and neurological complications each brings. Lymphedema prevention, identification and management. Video sessions: scar tissue awareness with Denise Stewart, OT; upper and lower extremity lymph drainage with Andrea Leonard; mindful breathing with Ed Harrold; and cancer and comorbidities with Dr. Mark Kelly.
Postural assessment, goniometric measurement and other testing methods, and the balance of agonists and antagonists behind individualized programming. Correcting muscle imbalance around range-of-motion limitations, postural deviations and side effects. Cardiorespiratory fitness and exercise intensity, cardiomyopathy, nervous system side effects, manual stretching technique, and core and balance work on the BOSU® Balance Trainer. Includes assessment protocol video with Andrea Leonard.
Exercise against mental and physical fatigue, cancer-related pain and depression, and the role of diet through treatment and long-term survivorship. Psychology of fitness, weight management, nutrition science in oncology, alcohol, smoking and cancer risk, emotional health, and working with the medical community. Includes CAM and culinary medicine with Dr. Manuel Guzman, GLP-1 medication and cancer with Dr. Anna Schwartz, and a discussion between Andrea Leonard and Dr. Tami De La Melena — plus the client-ready forms.
Andrea Leonard was diagnosed with thyroid cancer at eighteen. After a complete thyroidectomy and radioactive iodine treatment, she rebuilt her own health from scratch — and became a personal trainer to help others do the same.
In 1996 her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer for the second time. Watching her struggle through multiple surgeries, reconstruction, a frozen shoulder, and narcotic dependence, Andrea assembled a medical advisory board from Georgetown, George Washington and Johns Hopkins and wrote Essential Exercises for Breast Cancer Survivors, published by Harvard Common Press in 2000.
In 2000 she founded The Breast Cancer Survivors Foundation, an Oregon 501(c)(3). She founded CETI in 2004 because she could only train so many people herself.
Twenty-four years later she is a 42-year cancer survivor, has authored 21 books, holds an MS in Functional Nutrition, and was named PFP/Club Industry Personal Trainer of the Year in 2019.
Read Andrea’s full story →Surgical oncologists, physicians, therapists, oncology nurses, naturopathic doctors, dietitians and exercise scientists across nine countries — reviewing the science and shaping the content.
The CES Advanced Qualification is approved for continuing education by seven bodies across the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada — with NPCP credits on the Pilates version and Yoga Alliance hours on the Yoga version.
The first seven apply to every version of the Advanced Qualification. The Pilates version adds 40 NPCP credits; the Yoga version adds 30 Yoga Alliance non-contact hours. AUSactive CECs are sometimes accepted via ACE credits — confirm with AUSactive before enrolling.
“I have been using my certification for the last couple of years and I have met and worked with probably 75 to 100 cancer survivors. Not a day goes by that one of them doesn’t thank me for what I am doing.”
“It enabled me to be hired by the Memorial Hermann Hospital System, one of the largest hospital systems in the United States. I became a spokesperson for Susan G. Komen and was able to work with industry thought leaders from MD Anderson.”
Survivors and caregivers search the CETI global directory to find help nearby. Every specialist listed has passed the qualification within the last two years. Certified specialists get listed — and get found.
Yes — the CES Advanced Qualification is approved by nine bodies across four continents: DRD Puerto Rico (22), NSCA (20), AFAA (15), CIMSPA (10), Canfitpro (4), ACE (3.5) and NASM (1.9), plus NPCP (40) on the Pilates version and Yoga Alliance (30) on the Yoga version. CETI has partnered with the American Council on Exercise since 2019.
180 days from the date of purchase. After that you keep lifetime access to the materials on any device.
Yes. The CES Advanced Qualification is available as a single payment of $999, or six monthly payments of $168. On a payment plan, the final exam unlocks when your last payment clears.
No. A degree in a health or fitness field, work experience, and an accredited fitness certification are recommended but not required. If you don’t have that background, we provide additional educational support so you can still do the work properly.
Both. You can work through it self-paced, or join a structured monthly Zoom Guided cohort with weekly webinars and business support.
Two years. The curriculum is rigorously updated every two years, so recertification means learning what’s actually changed in oncology and exercise science.
You have 14 days to request a refund, provided you haven’t moved past Module 1.
The Everything Package includes a personalized business launch plan: your local market analysis, a tiered referral contact list for your region, service and pricing structures, and outreach scripts. You’re also listed in the CETI global directory, which survivors and caregivers search directly.
Yes. Virtual training instruction is included, so you can work with immunocompromised clients who can’t safely come to a gym or clinic — and reach clients anywhere in the world.
Yes, including custom cohorts for hospitals, universities and facilities. Request a consultation →
Scholarships and customized payment plans are available. Email Andrea about a scholarship →
Every day, an oncologist tells a patient to exercise and has no qualified specialist to send them to.
Start with the colorectal cancer section at no cost. Nothing to cancel, nothing owed.