Physical Fitness Reduces Cancer Risk in Middle-Aged Men

New research finds that men in better physical shape in middle age are at less risk for developing, and dying from, certain cancers.

In an effort to assess the association between midlife cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) and incident cnacer and survival following a cancer diagnosis, a team including researchers from Vermont Cancer Center and The Cooper Institute conducted a study of 13,949 middle-age men. Participants completed a fitness exam that included a treadmill test, with the authors using The authors used age- and sex-specific distribution of treadmill duration from the overall Cooper Center Longitudinal Study population to define fitness groups as those with lose (lowest 20%), moderate (middle 40%), and high (upper 40%) cardiorespiratory fitness groups.
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The adjusted multi-variable model included age, examination year, body mass index, smoking, total cholesterol level, systolic blood pressure, diabetes mellitus, and fasting glucose level. Cardiorespiratory fitness levels were assessed between 1971 and 2009, and incident lung, prostate, and colorectal cancer using Medicare Parts A and B claims data from 1999 to 2009. In total, 1,300 men were diagnosed with prostate cancer, 200 were given a lung cancer diagnosis, and 180 received a diagnosis of colorectal cancer.

Researchers found that lung and colorectal cancer risk decreased as mid-life cardiorespiratory fitness increased. They did not, however, find the same was true with respect to prostate cancer. Men at the highest level of fitness in middle age saw reductions of nearly 50% in lung and colorectal cancer incidence, in comparison to men at the lowest fitness level. Among those who developed any of the 3 types of cancer, more physically fit participants experienced significantly lower rates of cancer-specific and cardiovascular mortality.

Ultimately, the authors determined an “inverse association between mid-life CRF and incident lung and colorectal cancer, but not prostate cancer,” noting that high mid-life CRF is associated with lower risk of cause-specific mortality in those diagnosed with having cancer at Medicare age.”

—Mark McGraw

Reference

Lakoski S, Willis B, et al. Midlife Cardiorespiratory Fitness, Incident Cancer, and Survival After Cancer in Men: The Cooper Center Longitudinal Study. JAMA Oncol. 2015.