In an invited commentary published alongside the new study, epidemiologists from Emery University and the University of North Carolina noted that the analysis leaves some crucial questions for future research, including how, why and how much exercise works to reduce cancer risk.
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“Not surprisingly, these figures increased to 40 percent to 70 percent when assessed with regard to the broader US population of whites, which has a much worse lifestyle pattern than our cohorts”, Dr. Mingyang Song and Dr. Edward Giovannucci of Harvard Medical School wrote. “Therefore, primary prevention should remain a priority for cancer control”, the authors conclude.
The researchers analyzed cancer and lifestyle data from the Nurses’ Health Study, the Health Professionals Follow-up Study, as well as USA national cancer statistics to establish associations between cancer incidence and mortality and lifestyle.
In the JAMA Oncology study, people who got less than 75 minutes of high-intensity exercise or 150 minutes of medium-intensity physical activity per week were considered to have an unhealthful lifestyle.
A new report indicates if Americans curbed bad habits, such as smoking, drinking, and unhealthy eating, and worked in 150 minutes of exercise a week, half of all cancer deaths could be prevented.
We had the same thought: We know exercise can reduce our risk of certain types of cancers, specifically colon cancer in men (and breast cancer in women). But Song and Giovannucci permitted a BMI as high as 27.5 in their designation as a “healthy lifestyle”. If women followed suit, their annual cancer rates would drop by 59% and 41% respectively.
It was revealed that “for lung cancer, 82 percent of cases could be prevented in women and 78 percent in men”.
In addition, they wrote, future research will need to suss out “the exact timing, intensity and dose of physical activity required for cancer risk reduction”. The types of cancers that didn’t seem to depend on exercise included non-Hodgkin lymphoma, thyroid and pancreatic.
“A substantial cancer burden may be prevented through lifestyle modification”. By “environmental”, they mean non-genetic causes.
The findings, published online this week in the journal JAMA Oncology, underscore how extensively public health measures aimed at fostering healthful lifestyles could cut into a disease that will claim the lives of 600,000 Americans this year and upend the lives of 1.6 million by turning them into newly diagnosed patients. “It is these efforts that will be our fastest return on past investments in cancer research over the coming decades”, write Graham A. Colditz, M.D., Dr.P.H., and Siobhan Sutcliffe, Ph.D., of Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis.
“In fact, most cancer is preventable-with estimates as high as 80 percent to 90 percent for smoking-related cancers, such as lung and oropharyngeal cancer, and as high as 60 percent for other common, lifestyle-related cancers, such as colorectal and bladder cancer”. “Efforts here can focus on things like farmers’ markets in underserved neighborhoods, safe and affordable places for people to exercise, and buildings that help foster activity”, they added.
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They said Americans need to stop thinking that cancer is down to bad luck or a result of factors out of their control.
