Exercise could reduce male prostate cancer risk, expert says

Exercise could reduce the risk of prostate cancer developing in Caucasian men, a new study has found.

Lionel Banez of the Durham Veterans Medical Centre led a prep investigation into the topic, finding that those who have the disease could be able to lower their risk of it worsening by exercising more frequently.

However, such benefits do not appear to apply to African-American men, with previous studies suggesting that African-American men have an increased risk of developing prostate cancer and dying from it.

As part of the investigation, Mr Banez and his colleagues quizzed 307 men undergoing a prostate biopsy to complete a survey assessing their exercise amounts per week.

Categories for this included sedentary, mildly active, moderately active and highly active.

When it came to Caucasians, those who were moderately or highly active were 53 per cent less likely to have biopsy results indicating they had prostate cancer in comparison with those who were sedentary or mildly active. No association was found between exercise amount and prostate cancer among black men.

These findings, showing that African-American men may not benefit from exercise the way Caucasian men do, could be a contributor to why African- American race is a risk factor for prostate cancer and aggressive prostate cancer.

"Further studies are needed to investigate the mechanism behind this racial disparity in deriving cancer-related benefits from exercise which disfavors African-American men," Dr Banez explained.

As part of the study, researchers looked at how exercise influenced the grade of tumours that were identified in men who did develop prostate cancer.

With regard to those who had the disease, respondents who exercised had a 13 per cent reduced risk of having a high grade disease, resulting in cancer cells that looked abnormal under a microscope and were likely to grow and spread.

This relationship was then explored as a function of race, with results showing it to be significant in Caucasians but not in African Americans.

Posted by Fiona Griffiths