We’ve all known for years that exercise has many health benefits including lowering high blood pressure, blood sugar, and cardiovascular disease. Well now, multiple studies are also confirming that strenuous exercise a few times a week in men being treated for prostate or colon cancer can increase their chances of remission and long-term survival.
Earlier this month, findings presented at the American Association for Cancer Research’s Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research Conference showed that “men who engaged in five or more hours of vigorous physical activity [during] a week, were at decreased risk of dying from their prostate cancer.”
Researchers assessed the physical activity level for 2,686 patients in a Health Professionals Follow-up Study. Men with metastases (cancer spreading to other parts of the body) at diagnosis were excluded from the study.
“We saw benefits at very attainable levels of activity,” said Dr. Stacey A. Kenfield, lead author of the study and epidemiology research associate at the Harvard School of Public Health.
“We aren’t sure of the exact molecular effects exercise has on prostate cancer, but exercise is known to influence a number of hormones hypothesized to stimulate prostate cancer, boost immune function, and reduce inflammation,” she added.
These findings both support and step-up prior Harvard recommendations. “Although for many conditions even moderate amounts of activity confer some benefits, to achieve a benefit for prostate cancer, regular vigorous exercise - for example, jogging rather than walking - for at least three to four hours per week appears to be necessary,” according to the Harvard School of Public Health’s 2005 winter newsletter.
Similarly this month, researchers with the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute published a study, which findings showed that “men who have been treated for colorectal cancer can reduce their risk of dying from the disease by engaging in regular exercise.”
“This current study confirms two other studies from our group that show physical activity by colorectal cancer survivors helps them live longer than those survivors who are not physically active,” said Dr. Jeffry A. Meyerhardt, the study’s lead author and an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.
Meyerhardt and his team studied 668 men with colorectal cancer. More than 50 percent of the men exercised about an hour-a-day, six days a week.
The study found that “patients that engaged in moderate physical activity were 53 percent more likely to be alive and free of the disease than those who were less physically active. The benefit of exercise was seen regardless of age, how advanced the cancer, weight, and any history of previous physical activity.”
Meyerhardt added that, “Moderate exercise has now been incorporated in some guidelines for colorectal cancer survivors and this new research should further reinforce to oncologists that they should discuss this in their survivorship plan.
“However, while our work found a significant benefit for patients who exercise, it’s important that exercise still be seen as a supplement to, not a replacement for, standard therapies.”
More than 148,000 people in the United States are diagnosed with colorectal cancer each year and, despite advances in screenings and treatments, the disease causes almost 50,000 deaths annually, according to information from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
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