Exercise and Prostate Cancer Risk in a Cohort of Veterans Undergoing Prostate Needle Biopsy
Received 3 March 2009 published online 16 September 2009.
Refers to article:
Can Men Reduce the Risk of Prostate Cancer Through Lifestyle Changes?
, 16 September 2009
Janet Colli
The Journal of Urology
November 2009 (Vol. 182, Issue 5, Pages 2101-2102) Full Text |
Full-Text PDF (99 KB)
Purpose
Epidemiological and molecular evidence suggest potential associations between exercise and prostate cancer risk reduction. We further characterized this relationship by examining exercise and cancer risk among men undergoing prostate needle biopsy.
Materials and Methods
A total of 190 men who underwent prostate biopsy at the Durham Veterans Affairs Medical Center completed a questionnaire on current exercise behavior. Participants were asked average frequency of mild, moderate and strenuous intensity exercise in a typical week, as well as average duration as assessed by the Godin Leisure Time Exercise Questionnaire. Total current exercise was calculated in terms of metabolic equivalent task hours per week. Primary outcome measures were prostate biopsy result and Gleason sum.
Results
After adjusting for age, race, body mass index, prostate specific antigen, digital rectal examination, family history, previous prostate biopsy and comorbidity score, men who reported 9 or more metabolic equivalent task hours per week of exercise were significantly less likely to have cancer on biopsy (OR 0.35, CI 0.17–0.75, p = 0.007). Furthermore, among men with malignant biopsy results, reporting moderate exercise (3 to 8.9 metabolic equivalent task hours weekly) was associated with a lower risk of high grade disease (Gleason 7 or greater, OR 0.14, CI 0.02–0.94, p = 0.04).
Conclusions
To our knowledge these results provide the first evidence of an association between exercise and prostate cancer risk as well as grade at diagnosis in men scheduled to undergo prostate biopsy. Specifically moderate exercise was associated with a lower risk of prostate cancer and in men with cancer, lower grade disease. Further investigation using an objective measure of exercise in a larger sample size is required to confirm these findings.
aDuke Prostate Center, Division of Urologic Surgery, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina
bRobert Preston Tisch Brain Tumor Center, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina
cDepartment of Surgery, Department of Community and Family Medicine, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina
dDepartment of Pathology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina
eSection of Urology, Department of Surgery, Durham Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina
fJLC-Biomedical/Biotechnology Research Institute, Cancer Research Program, North Carolina Central University, Durham, North Carolina
Correspondence: Division of Urology, Department of Surgery, Box 2626, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina 27710 (telephone: 919-668-5946; FAX: 919-668-7093)
Study received institutional review board approval.
Supported by the Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of Defense and the American Urological Association Foundation/Astellas Rising Stars in Urology Award.
ABSTRACT