Brisk Walking May Help to Lower Prostate Cancer Progression

After skin cancer, prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed type of cancer among men in the United States. In that vigorous exercise, including the activity of brisk walking, has been consistently shown to have significant benefits on cardiovascular health, diabetes, and many other diseases, a team from the University of California/San Francisco (UCSF; California, USA) and the Harvard School of Public Health (Massachusetts, USA), investigated the effects of brisk walking among men with prostate cancer. Erin Richman, from UCSF, and colleagues selected 1,455 men who were a subset of a larger group of 14,000 men with prostate cancer, enrolled in a long-term, nationwide prostate cancer registry study (Cancer of the Prostate Strategic Urologic Research Endeavor, or CaPSURE™).   Finding a link between brisk walking and lowered risk of prostate cancer progression, the researchers determined that men who walked briskly -- at least three miles per hour -- for at least three hours per week after diagnosis were nearly 60% less likely to develop biochemical markers of cancer recurrence or need a second round of treatment for prostate cancer.  The team concludes that: “Brisk walking after diagnosis may inhibit or delay prostate cancer progression among men diagnosed with clinically localized prostate cancer.”