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March 2008 Volume 2 #1
 Role of women in support groups New blood tests for PCa Physical activity and decreased PCa risk Conference 2008 • SUBSCRIBE • contact the editor • visit the cpcn website |
Physical activity and decreased prostate cancer risk  Men who engage in regular physical activity as part of their jobs seem to have a decreased risk of prostate cancer. Researchers reported this conclusion in the February 2008 issue of Cancer Causes and Control after studying prostate cancer incidence among male workers at a nuclear and rocket-engine testing facility in Southern California. (Get more information about this study.)Other research has suggested that regular and fairly continuous exercise, but not intermittent exercise, can lower prostate cancer risk. Among 53,000 Norwegian men, for example, investigators found a lower incidence of prostate cancer for those who were active both recreationally and on the job. But just working as a manual labourer did not lower men's risk. Dr. Terryl Hartman, professor of nutritional studies at Pennsylvania State University agrees. His team found that men with high levels of long-term physical activity were less likely to develop prostate cancer, but those in heavy manual labour experienced fairly average risk for the disease. The thinking is that, to lower your prostate cancer risk, you need regular and "dynamic" activity rather than more "static" work, such as heavy lifting. So get out those running shoes and hiking boots! The biology behind how physical activity affects prostate cancer risk is not known definitively. Researchers speculate, however, that regular physical activity alters hormone levels in men. Male athletes and others with high levels of sustained physical activity, for example, have lower levels of both total and free testosterone --- the main male hormone or androgen. And we do know that reducing androgen levels in men who have prostate cancer can slow the progress of the disease. This knowledge is at the basis of hormone therapy for prostate cancer. Other factors related to regular, dynamic physical activity might help lower prostate cancer risk. Body fat levels and content, diet, insulin levels, and the amount of other non-androgenic hormones in the body can also be affected by exercise and may be involved in lowering prostate cancer risk. One difficulty in determining the exact effects of exercise on prostate cancer incidence is that it is very hard to design randomized clinical trails to test for these effects. Just imagine trying to get thousands of men to engage in and record a specified amount and sort of physical activity over, let's say, ten years, and you see the trouble. This is one reason that current studies often focus on men who have to be physically active as part of their jobs. Still, even though it may be hard to prove, it makes sense that daily physical activity not only enhances a man's general health but, more than likely, helps protect him against prostate cancer. See the related article from CPCN Network News entitled "Surviving prostate cancer: New evidence on how exercise can help." |
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