Can exercise help prevent prostate cancer? It's complicated
In recent years, one of the most provocative questions in cancer research has been whether a regular exercise habit can prevent certain cancers from taking hold.
The answer, as with any question related to cancer, is complicated. But a recent study published in The British Journal of Sports Medicine offered a glimpse of how regular physical activity affects the risk of prostate cancer, the second most common and second most fatal cancer in the United States for men.
In one of the largest such efforts to date, researchers collected data between 1982 and 2019 from 57,652 Swedish men who had participated in at least two fitness tests to see if those who were more active were less likely to develop cancer. Around 1% were later diagnosed with prostate cancer. The team found that those who had improved in fitness over the years were 35% less likely to have been diagnosed with the disease.
The finding is in line with much of the latest research on the relationship between fitness and cancer diagnosis. According to a 2021 study, for instance, if all adults in the United States were to meet the physical activity guidelines, cancer diagnoses could drop by 3%, or 46,000 cases, every year.
But while there has been extensive research on the relationship between exercise and conditions such as breast cancer, there has been less research specifically on prostate cancer. The chance of having prostate cancer rises for all men after 50; risk appears to run in families. About 1 in 8 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during their lifetime, according to the American Cancer Society.
Some previous studies looking at the connection between physical activity and prostate cancer have been contradictory, according to Dr. Kate Bolam, a co-author of the study. While some showed increased risk of prostate cancer for those who were physically active, others found a decreased risk.
But many of those studies had small sample sizes or were biased toward healthier people, said Bolam, a researcher at the Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences.
“Men who are generally more health-conscious,” she said, “are also good at going to the doctor when they are called for their prostate cancer screening tests.”
More testing means more diagnoses, including in men whose cancers will never progress. Sometimes cancer cells can exist in the prostate for one’s entire life and not be dangerous, so many men who are not tested and do
Cancer
said. The disease affects the way the body processes and stores energy, causing it to accumulate weight. The new drugs alter that process and when patients stop, the disease returns, often with a vengeance.
Many people dropping off the medications report a sharp rise in symptoms of obesity. They include so-called food noise or intrusive thoughts of food; raging hunger; and decreased feelings of fullness when they eat.
“These drugs are just a super-suppressor of these native signals,” Rothberg said. “And we should expect that’s going to occur.”
Tara Rothenhoefer, 48, of Trinity, Florida, lost more than 200 pounds after joining a clinical trial for Mounjaro nearly four years ago. She now takes the lowest dose of the drug every four to eight weeks, but she worries when her weight fluctuates by a few pounds.
“It scares the daylights out of me to see the numbers on the scale going up,” she said.
Some patients who stop the drugs and start again find they can’t tolerate the medication, winding up with severe gastrointestinal side effects, Acosta said. Others find the drugs don’t work as well when they restart them,
Saunders added. But there’s no data on the long-term effects of intermittent use.
“I don’t think it’s a strategy that will work for most individuals, but it could be an option for select patients,” Saunders said.
Cooper has heard that people gain back weight when they stop the drugs, but she hopes to be an exception. She’s on her last box of Wegovy injections. Once she’s done, Cooper said she’ll just continue with a strict diet and exercise plan.
“I just needed a crutch to get everything back in order,” said Cooper, who has gone from a size 16 to a size 10. “And I am excited to be done.”