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 For these men, regular moderate or vigorous physical activity was
associated with 31 percent to 37 percent lower likelihood of death
during the study, compared to more modest amounts of exercise.
“This confirms and expands on previous work that shows an inverse
association between recreational physical activity after diagnosis
and risk of prostate cancer-specific mortality,” said lead study
author Ying Wang of the American Cancer Society in Atlanta, Georgia,
in email to Reuters Health.
Prostate cancer is the third leading cause of cancer death among
U.S. men, according to the American Cancer Society. The country’s
3.3 million prostate cancer survivors account for 21 percent of all
cancer survivors.
Wang and colleagues pulled data from a large, long-term study group
established by the American Cancer Society in 1992, focusing on
7,000 men who were diagnosed with prostate cancer between 1992 and
2011.
The average age at cancer diagnosis was 71, and there were 2,700
deaths through 2012, including 450 due to prostate cancer and 750
due to heart disease. The average time from diagnosis to death was
about eight years for those who died from cancer and 10 years for
those who died from other causes.
Men who were more active before diagnosis were more likely to have
lower-risk cancer tumors and a history of prostate screenings. They
were also leaner, more likely to be nonsmokers and vitamin users and
they ate more fish.
Both before and after diagnosis, walking accounted for 73 percent of
the physical activity that men did, followed by 10 percent for
cycling and 5 percent for aerobic exercise, according to the report
in European Urology.
After standardizing the men’s weekly exercise times and intensity
levels, the researchers compared mortality rates among all the men
to those who did some physical activity but not much. They wanted to
avoid comparisons to the least active men, who were likely also the
sickest overall, because their sedentary lifestyles were potentially
due to other reasons.
Based on exercise levels before diagnosis, moderate to vigorous
exercise, including walking, was linked to lower risk of death from
prostate cancer, but only for men with lower-risk tumors.
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But after the diagnosis, the same levels of exercise were linked to
lower risk of death from prostate cancer for all men, although the
apparent benefit of walking was no longer statistically meaningful.
The rising rage of prostate cancer "keeps the conversation going"
regarding efforts to prevent and treat it, said Dr. Antony Wekesa of
Eurofins Lancaster Laboratories in Cork, Ireland, who wasn’t
involved in the study.
A limitation of the study is that it used self-reported data about
the men’s exercise and other lifestyle details, Wekesa told Reuters
Health by email. The low number of minority participants also
obscures possible differences among groups that often have higher
prostate cancer rates.
Three clinical trials at the University of California, San Francisco
are focused on the effects of physical activity in men with prostate
cancer, noted Erin Van Blarigan of UCSF, who wasn’t involved in the
current study.
The American Cancer Society and American College of Sports Medicine
recommend at least 150 minutes of moderate physical activity or 75
minutes of vigorous exercise each week.
That guideline "is a good starting goal for men who have been
diagnosed,” Van Blarigan told Reuters Health by email. “However, men
with prostate cancer should work toward continuing to increase their
physical activity . . . likely twice that amount.”
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/2tXMK6Y European Urology, online July 12,
2017.
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