Diet and exercise reduced risk for death among cancer survivors
For elderly female cancer survivors, achieving and maintaining a healthy body weight, staying physically active, and maintaining a healthy diet can improve survival after a cancer diagnosis, according to recent study data.
“Elderly female cancer survivors who achieve and maintain an ideal body weight, stay physically active and eat a healthy diet have an almost 40% lower risk for death compared with women who do not follow these recommendations,” said Maki Inoue-Choi, PhD, RD, research associate in the Division of Epidemiology and Community Health in the School of Public Health at the University of Minnesota.
For the study, researchers investigated cancer survivors’ adherence to the 2007 World Cancer Research Fund/American Institute for Cancer Research guidelines for body weight, physical activity, and diet. The study included 2080 women from the Iowa Women’s Health Study. These women were diagnosed with cancer between 1986 and 2002 and completed a follow-up questionnaire in 2004. Information provided by these women included body weight, physical activity level, dietary intake, and other demographic and lifestyle factors.
Researchers identified 495 deaths from 2004 to 2009, including 197 from cancer and 153 from cardiovascular disease, through annual linkage with the State of Health Registry of Iowa and the National Death Index. Adjustments were made for age, number of comorbid conditions, general health, smoking, type and stage of cancer, current cancer treatment, and subsequent cancer diagnosis. Researchers showed that all-cause mortality was 37% lower for women with the highest (6 to 8) versus the lowest (0 to 4) adherence scores.
Study findings were presented at the 11th Annual American Association for Cancer Research International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research.
Source: AACR.