Cancer study reveals ‘compelling evidence’ doing exercise can help tackle the disease
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Cancer patients going on an exercise drive can cut the risk of the disease progressing by almost a third, new research shows. The study, published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, included 28,248 people and found exercising in the year before a diagnosis cut the odds of the disease progressing by up to 27%. It looked at people with stage one cancers, the most common being breast and prostate, and their disease progressed in 34.5% of patients.
Some 81% survived, although 19% died before the end of the study. It comes as the NHS in England is considering requiring obese patients to lose weight before they get routine operations for conditions other than cancer. Study author Professor Jon Patricios, of the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, said the promotion of exercise "can yield important benefits". He said: “Our results provide compelling evidence of the inverse association between pre-diagnosis physical activity and cancer progression and overall mortality among people diagnosed with stage 1 cancers.”.
The average time to death was 20 months and the average time to progression was seven months. Activity was recorded using fitness devices, logged gym sessions and participation in organised fitness events. The levels of exercise in the 12 months before diagnosis were categorised as no physical activity, low physical activity - less than 60 minutes a week - and moderate to high physical activity of more than 60 minutes a week. Some 62% of patients recorded no exercise, with 13% categorised as taking part in low levels of physical activity and 25% taking part in moderate or high levels.
