Source: Thailand Medical News Dec 05, 2019 4 years, 4 months, 3 weeks, 19 minutes ago
Though
prostate cancer is the most common
cancer in men globally, we still have yet to know all of its causes. The largest ever study to use genetics as a measurement for
physical activity to look at its effect on
prostate cancer, reveals that being more active reduces the risk of
prostate cancer. Over 140,000 men were included in the study, of which, 80,000 had
prostate cancer.
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The study, published in the
International Journal of Epidemiology today (5 December), was led by the University of Bristol and co-funded by World
Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) and
Cancer Research UK (CRUK). It found that people with the variation in their DNA sequence that makes them more likely to be active, had a 51 per cent reduced risk of
prostate cancer than people who did not have this particular variation. Importantly, the findings relate to overall
physical activity, not just intense exercise.
World
Cancer Research Fund's own evidence has already shown that being active can reduce the risk of bowel, breast and womb
cancer, but the evidence of physical activity on
prostate cancer was limited. But this large study, which uses genetics as a proxy measurement for physical activity, shows that being active may in fact have a large impact on
prostate cancer risk. To date there has been little evidence of ways to reduce
prostate cancer risk other than maintaining a healthy weight.
"This study is the largest-ever of its kind which uses a relatively new method that complements current observational research to discover what causes
prostate cancer. It suggests that there could be a larger effect of
physical activity on
prostate cancer than previously thought, so will hopefully encourage men to be more active." Commented Dr. Sarah Lewis, Senior Lecturer in Genetic Epidemiology at Bristol Medical School: Population Health Sciences, and lead author of the research,in an interview with
Thailand Medical News.
"Up till now, there has only been limited evidence of an effect of
physical activity on
prostate cancer. This new study looked at the effect of 22 risk factors on
prostate cancer, but the results for physical activity were the most striking. This will pave the way for even more research, where similar methods could be applied to other lifestyle factors, to help identify ways men can reduce their risk of
prostate cancer." Said Dr. Anna Diaz Font, Head of Research Funding at WCRF.
This recent type of study that combines genetics, lifestyle and
cancer risk, supports previous evidence from observational studies that being active can reduce the risk of <
strong>cancer.
Reference : 'Appraising causal relationships of dietary, nutritional and physical-activity exposures with overall and aggressive prostate cancer: two-sample Mendelian randomisation study based on 79,148 prostate cancer cases and 61,106 controls' by Sarah Lewis et al in International Journal of Epidemiology
