Regular physical activity prior to cancer diagnosis reduces progression, mortality risk
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Key takeaways:
- Any amount of activity weekly before a cancer diagnosis conferred benefit.
- Protective benefits of activity included longer survival and reduced risk for disease progression.
Regular physical activity prior to a cancer diagnosis lowered a patient’s risk for disease progression and death, according to study findings.
Even small amounts of physical activity on a weekly basis conferred a protective benefit, results showed.
“Our results provide compelling evidence of the inverse association between pre-diagnosis physical activity and cancer progression and overall mortality,” Ntokozo Mabena, senior data scientist at Discovery Limited, and colleagues “This association was significantly greater for individuals doing more than an average of 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity per week compared with those doing [less than] 60 minutes of recorded activity per week and those with no recorded physical activity.”
Mabena and colleagues conducted the study to assess associations between recorded physical activity prior to cancer diagnosis and disease progression or mortality.
The analysis included 28,248 patients with stage I cancer enrolled in a South Africa oncology program. Nearly half (44%) of study participants had been diagnosed with breast cancer or prostate cancer.
Researchers recorded physical activity information using fitness devices, logged gym sessions and participation in organized fitness events.
They categorized patients’ levels of physical activity during the 12 months prior to a cancer diagnosis as no physical activity (61.8% of patients); low physical activity, defined as an average of less than 60 minutes per week (13.18%); or moderate to high physical activity, defined as at least 60 minutes per week (25.02%).
Study outcomes included disease progression, time to death and all-cause mortality.
Patients with moderate to high physical activity levels had lower rates of cancer progression than patients with no physical activity (HR = 0.73; 95% CI, 0.7-0.77).
Patients with low physical activity levels also had lower rates of progression to higher disease stages than patients with no physical activity (HR = 0.84; 95% CI, 0.79-0.89).
Compared with patients who performed no physical activity, those who performed moderate to high physical activity (HR = 0.53; 95% CI, 0.5-0.58) or low physical activity (HR = 0.67; 95% CI, 0.61-0.74) had lower rates of all-cause mortality.
At 5 years after diagnosis, patients who performed no physical activity prior to diagnosis had a 66% likelihood of no disease progression, compared with 71% for patients with low physical activity levels and 73% of patients with moderate to high levels.
Researchers calculated 5-year survival probabilities of 84% for those with no physical activity, 90% for those with low levels of activity, and 91% for those with moderate to high levels of activity.
Researchers acknowledged study limitations, including lack of adjustment for potential confounders like smoking status or alcohol consumption, not accounting for BMI, assuming that patients with no recorded physical activity did not partake in any recreational activity, and the fact the study only included patients from South Africa.
“Physical activity may be considered to confer substantial benefits in terms of progression and overall mortality to those diagnosed with cancer,” researchers wrote. “In a world where cancer continues to be a significant public health burden, the promotion of physical activity can yield important benefits regarding the progression of cancer as well as its prevention and management.”
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