WEDNESDAY, Jan. 31, 2024 (HealthDay News) — Even small increases in a person’s cardio fitness can significantly reduce his risk of developing prostate cancer, researchers report.

An annual increase in aerobic fitness of three% or more is linked to a 35% lower risk of prostate cancer, in line with a report published Jan. 30 within the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

“Improvements in [cardiorespiratory fitness] in adult men must be encouraged and should reduce the danger of prostate cancer,” concluded the research team led by Dr. Kate Bolam, an exercise oncology researcher with the Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences GIH in Stockholm.

There already is nice evidence regarding the advantages of physical activity in terms of overall cancer risk, however the association between fitness and prostate cancer risk has not been well-studied, researchers said in a journal news release.

To look at this, they analyzed the records of nearly 58,000 men kept in a national occupational health profile database.

The boys included within the study had taken at the least two cardio fitness tests, measured by pedaling on a stationary bike. The database also included information on physical activity, lifestyle and body-mass index.

Researchers divided the lads into groups in line with their fitness trends – those whose heart fitness improved by 3% or more annually, fell by greater than 3% or remained stable through the study period.

During a median follow-up period of nearly seven years, about 600 of the lads were diagnosed with prostate cancer and nearly 50 died from the disease.

Overall, men whose cardio fitness increased yearly had a 2% lower risk of prostate cancer compared with those whose fitness didn’t increase or fell, results showed.

And when researchers checked out the precise groups, they found that men with 3% or more yearly increase in fitness were 35% less more likely to develop prostate cancer than those whose fitness declined.

Nonetheless, cardio fitness was not statistically linked to a person’s risk of dying from prostate cancer, researchers found.

A person’s level of fitness from the outset also made a difference. Only the lads with a moderate level of fitness initially experienced a major reduction in prostate cancer risk — about 15%.

More information

The National Cancer Institute has more about physical activity and cancer.

SOURCE: BMJ, news release, Jan. 30, 2024