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Prostate cancer and exercise

Last reviewed dd mmm yyyy. Last edited dd mmm yyyy

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Evidence suggests that men who increased their cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) by more than 3% had a significantly lower risk of prostate cancer incidence (1):

  • prospective study; men who completed an occupational health profile assessment including at least two valid submaximal CRF tests, performed on a cycle ergometer, were included
  • data on prostate cancer incidence and mortality were derived from national registers
  • during a mean follow-up time of 6.7 years (SD 4.9), 592 (1%) of the 57 652 men were diagnosed with prostate cancer, and 46 (0.08%) died
  • when participants were grouped as having increased (+3%), stable (±3%) or decreased (−3%) CRF, those with increased fitness also had a reduced risk of prostate cancer incidence compared with those with decreased fitness (HR 0.65, 95% CI 0.49 to 0.86), in the fully adjusted model

In a study of metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) patients (2):

  • elevated myokine expressions and greater tumour-suppressive effects of serum after 6 months of periodised and autoregulated supervised exercise was observed in men with mCRPC
  • study authors suggest that exercise-induced systemic changes may slow disease progression in men with advanced prostate cancer

Reference:

  1. Bolam KA, Bojsen-Møller E, Wallin P, et al. Association between change in cardiorespiratory fitness and prostate cancer incidence and mortality in 57 652 Swedish men. British Journal of Sports Medicine Published Online First: 30 January 2024.
  2. Kim JS, Taaffe DR, Galvão DA, Hart NH, Gray E, Ryan CJ, Kenfield SA, Saad F, Newton RU. Exercise in advanced prostate cancer elevates myokine levels and suppresses in-vitro cell growth. Prostate Cancer Prostatic Dis. 2022 Mar;25(1):86-92.

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