April 18 2018. PSA Rising /Roswell Park, Buffalo, N.Y/. Researchers at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center have found that cancer patients who were physically active both before and after treatment were 40% more likely to survive than those who were physically inactive. This was true for many different disease types, including prostate, breast, colon, ovarian, bladder, endometrial, esophageal and skin cancer.
The associations between habitual inactivity and cancer mortality remained consistently strong regardless of the patient’s sex, tumor stage, smoking status or body-mass index (BMI).
The 40% higher probable survival rate in physically active patients is “remarkable,” the Roswell teams says. Another striking observation was that previously inactive patients who began exercising after their diagnosis increased their odds of survival by nearly 30%.
Patients participating in as few as one to two sessions of regular, weekly exercise experienced similar survival advantages as those who exercised more frequently, the researchers found. “In other words, when it comes to exercise, something is better than nothing but regular, weekly exercise seems to really make a difference,” says says lead author Rikki Cannioto, PhD, EdD, MS.
“In fact, patients who were physically active three or four days a week experienced an even greater benefit than those who exercised daily, and patients who had only one or two days of regular activity per week did nearly as well. This is particularly encouraging, as cancer patients and survivors can be overwhelmed by current physical activity recommendations.” Continue reading “Sedentary Lifestyle Drastically Increases Risk of Dying from Cancer”