PhysioUpdate News 6th February 2024

Men should be encouraged to improve their fitness levels to help them lower their chances of developing – though not dying from – prostate cancer.

That is the conclusion of paper published online today (31 January) in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. It has two first authors: Kate A Bolam and Emil Bojsen-Møller, both of whom are based in the Department of Physical Activity and Health at the Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences GIH in Stockholm, Sweden.

There are relatively few known risk factors for prostate cancer, note doctors Bolam and Bojsen-Møller and five colleagues. And while there’s good evidence for the beneficial effects of physical activity on the risk of several cancers, the associations with prostate cancer are less clear-cut.

Most studies have assessed fitness at only one time point, with none examining the potential impact of fitness on both the risk of developing and dying from prostate cancer, the researchers state. They wanted to discover whether improvements in cardiorespiratory fitness might, over time, influence these risks, drawing on a national occupational health profile assessment database.

The database collected information on physical activity, lifestyle, perceived health, measurement of body mass and height, and the results of at least two cardiorespiratory fitness tests, measured by peddling on a stationary cycle, for 57,652 men out of a total of 181,673.