Moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) is associated with better survival rates among older patients with endometrial cancer, according to a study recently published in Cancer Causes & Control.
Endometrial cancer is one of the most common cancers among the female population. While cancer detected at a more advanced stage carries an increased risk of death, survival rates in endometrial cancer are generally poor. As such, it is important for researchers to identify modifiable factors that can be targeted to improve patient outcomes.
Currently, there is a relative lack of research into how a sedentary lifestyle and a lack of MVPA following a diagnosis of endometrial cancer influence outcomes, especially when obesity is taken into consideration. The authors of the study sought to investigate how these factors affect survival among patients with endometrial cancer.
They conducted a study in which they identified survivors of endometrial cancer from participants of the Cancer Prevention Study-II Nutrition Cohort, which was initiated in 1992. Participants were initially asked to complete a questionnaire about cancer diagnoses, first an enrollment, and once every two years starting from 1997. Patients who reported a diagnosis of endometrial cancer had their illness verified through their clinical records.
Read more about endometrial cancer signs and symptoms
A total of 1016 survivors of endometrial cancer were identified through this cohort. Researchers discovered that walking less than two hours a week was associated with higher deaths of all causes, and higher amounts of MVPA was found to be potentially linked to lower deaths of all causes. . This was also the case for increased tiers of sedentary behavior (measured in terms of amount of time spent watching television) compared with lower tiers.
It is worth noting that participants in this study were on average 13 years older at the time of diagnosis (71.7 years of age) compared with other studies generally. The findings of this study suggests that living a more physically active lifestyle may have a protective effect in terms of survival among patients with endometrial cancer.
“Our findings suggest that higher levels of MVPA after an endometrial cancer diagnosis may be associated with improved all-cause and total cancer survival in older adult survivors, though further research is needed in larger or pooled cohorts with more cancer deaths,” the authors of the study concluded.
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