Improving fitness may reduce prostate cancer risk

Improved cardiovascular fitness may reduce men’s risk of prostate cancer, a Swedish study suggests.

A retrospective study showed an overall increase in absolute cardiorespiratory fitness (measured by change in VO)._{max 2 pieces}) was associated with a 2% lower risk of developing prostate cancer (HR 0.98, 95% CI 0.96-0.99) after adjusting for baseline physical fitness, age, education, year of last test, BMI, and smoking.

However, this study also showed that changes in cardiorespiratory fitness were not associated with prostate cancer mortality.

When researchers looked at differences between groups, men who improved their cardiovascular fitness by at least 3% per year had a 35% lower risk of developing prostate cancer compared to men whose fitness decreased by 3%. (HR 0.65, 95% CI 0.49-0.86), reported Kate A. Bolam, Ph.D., of the Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences in Stockholm, and colleagues.

“Although highly complex in nature, these studies aimed at understanding the potential mechanisms behind the beneficial role of physical activity in cancer prevention may lead to more targeted prevention recommendations. ,” Boram et al. wrote in their paper. British Journal of Sports Medicine. “The results of this study highlight the important role that supporting the public to increase their CRF has. [cardiorespiratory fitness] Or aim to reach an intermediate fitness level. ”

When participants were stratified according to baseline cardiorespiratory fitness, the significant reduction in risk of developing prostate cancer (15% reduction) was only seen in men with moderate fitness levels. Ta.

“Improving CRF from an already high baseline may not provide any appreciable additional benefit,” the authors speculate.

In this prospective cohort study, the authors used the Stockholm Health Profile Institute’s Workplace Health Profile Assessment Database. This database included data on more than 180,000 men evaluated between 1982 and 2019.

Of these men, 58,971 met the study criteria of undergoing at least two cycle ergometer cardiopulmonary fitness tests at least 11 months apart. After excluding as outliers men who experienced more than 20% annual fitness loss or gain, the study cohort included 57,652 men. Their mean age was 41.4 years, and their mean baseline BMI was 26.

At a mean follow-up of 6.7 years, 592 (1%) of these men were diagnosed with prostate cancer, and 46 (0.08%) died with prostate cancer as the primary cause of death.

The authors noted that while associations between physical activity levels and incidence and mortality have been seen for many types of cancer, the evidence for prostate cancer is inconclusive.

In fact, some studies that have looked at the relationship between cardiorespiratory fitness and prostate cancer incidence at one point in time have shown that improved cardiorespiratory fitness actually increases prostate cancer incidence, as opposed to other types of cancer. has been shown to increase risk.

For example, a study published last year in the journal British Journal of Sports Medicine, researchers found that having good fitness was associated with a reduced risk of developing nine different types of cancer, with risk reductions ranging from 5% to 42%. However, improved cardiorespiratory fitness was associated with a 7% increase in his risk of prostate cancer.

”[T]The reason for these positive associations may be due to higher rates of prostate cancer screening among men with high CRF, rather than due to a ‘true’ increased risk among men with high CRF.” Bolam et al. wrote, adding: The results of this study “significantly contribute to our knowledge of the relationship between CRF and prostate cancer, as they are the first to examine changes in CRF rather than CRF at a single time point, and specifically focus on prostate cancer.” do.”

Regarding the lack of association between cardiorespiratory fitness and prostate cancer mortality, the authors concluded that the small number of prostate cancer-related deaths reported in this study may have led to an under-detection of an association. he suggested.

They also pointed to the competing risk of death from chronic diseases such as cardiovascular and metabolic diseases associated with the side effects of prostate cancer treatment.