Saturday, March 6, 2021

Walking pace may be linked to cancer survival

Photo credit – Washington University news
CANCER DIGEST – March 6, 2021 – Slow walking appears to be linked to higher risk of dying of any cause for patients who have survived cancer, a new study shows.

"To our knowledge, this analysis is the first to explore the relationship between cancer, walking pace and subsequent mortality in 15 different cancer types," said Elizabeth Salerno, PhD, who conducted this research while a postdoctoral researcher at the NCI. "Next steps include identifying the underlying reasons for these associations. It's possible that slow walking may be due to the cancer itself, adverse effects of treatment, or changes in lifestyle.

The observation study relied on a questionnaire given to 233,000 participants in the National Institutes of Health ongoing Health-American Association of Retired persons (NIH-AARP) study. Participants were aged 50-71. Researchers followed the participants as well as non-cancer participants, called controls, for several years. The study appears in the March 4 issue of the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.

They found that compared with healthy controls enrolled in the study, cancer survivors were 42% more likely to report walking at the slowest pace and 24% more likely to report being disabled.

Among cancer survivors, those who walked at the slowest pace had twice the risk of dying from any cause, compared with those reporting the fastest walking pace. As an observational study it is not possible to determine whether slow walking was contributing to the higher risk of death or whether slow walking is a by product of other factors that do increase the risk of dying.

The association between the slowest walking pace and a significantly increased risk of death held for nine cancer types, including breast, colon, melanoma, Non-Hodgkin lymphoma, oral, prostate, rectal, respiratory and urinary cancers.

Follow up research will focus on the complex effects of cancer on lifestyle factors that may play a role in survival.


Source: Washington University press release

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