New study Sports halves the prostate cancer mortality risk

Study: Run away from prostate cancer
Those who do a lot of sports after being diagnosed with prostate cancer can almost halve their risk of dying from the tumor. That's what Canadian scientists found out.

A long-term study by Canadian scientists shows that the risk of prostate cancer death from sports can be significantly reduced. (Image: Rido / fotolia.com)

A Canadian long-term study regularly reviewed 830 men with prostate cancer over a period of 1997/2000 (tumor diagnosis) until 2014. On average, men were 68 years old with tumor diagnosis, had all stage II-IV tumors, and still lived 2 years after diagnosis. During the investigation period, slightly more than half of the participants (458 men), 170 men (20.5%) of them died of prostate cancer.

The researchers assigned the participants to four equally sized groups with different levels of activity. In the group with the least movement more than twice as many died as in the group with the highest physical activity (158 versus 75). Of the most active participants, around 33% had died by the end of their studies, compared with three-quarters of those inactive who had already died.

Taking into account factors such as age, tumor stage and time to first progression, the overall mortality rate in the most active group was 42% lower than that of the physically most inactive men.

Looking at the researchers only the leisure activities, could be found for the quarter with the sportiest men a 36% reduced mortality. For males who were busy on their feet, the death rate was reduced by 28%.

It became clear that overall mortality rates and cancer mortality were lowest among men who had done a lot of sports in their spare time both before and after diagnosis. The study can be found here. (Pm)