Exercise matters after cancer diagnosis

The familiar 'eat right and exercise' message is particularly important for overweight elderly survivors of breast, prostate and colorectal cancers, because lifestyle factors can significantly affect their quality of life.

It is known that physical activity is associated with a decreased risk of cancer recurrence and improved survival in both breast and colorectal cancer. Also, there is some evidence that physical activity may help prevent sarcopenic obesity, a form of obesity associated with chemotherapy and hormonal therapy. Also, older cancer survivors are at risk for secondary cancers, cardiovascular disease, obesity, and functional decline and thus, may benefit from health-related interventions.

Therefore, researchers studied 753 American cancer survivors, older than 65 years of age, to find out whether overweight elderly cancer patients' quality of life (long after their original diagnosis and treatment) was affected by their health habits. All the participants who were involved in the study had survived for 5 or more years after a breast, prostate or colorectal cancer diagnosis. They were interviewed and data regarding their diet, exercises, weight status and quality of life was collected. All the participants were overweight to some degree, but none was morbidly obese.

It was found that no participant got moderate-to-vigorous exercise for more than 10 minutes per week, and only 7 percent had healthy eating habits. Overall, the survivors rated their mental and physical quality of life higher than average, compared to responses from age-matched normal populations.

However, those who exercised more and had better diet quality also had better physical quality of life outcomes (e.g., better vitality and physical functioning) than those who exercised less and ate poorly. Also, the higher the body weight, the poorer the physical quality of life.

The findings suggest that the prevalence of obesity and suboptimal dietary and exercise habits is high among older long-term cancer survivors. There is also a potential negative impact of obesity and the positive impact of physical activity and a healthy diet on physical quality of life in such patients.