Moderate to vigorous leisure-time physical activity reduces the risk of all obesity-related cancers compared with light or no activity in both normal weight and overweight individuals, a recent analysis indicates.
Greater levels of physical activity were also associated with lower risks of several individual cancers, including renal cell cancer and colon cancer.
However, the greatest risk reduction occurred in individuals with both higher physical activity levels and lower body mass indexes (BMIs).
"Collectively, these findings underscore the importance of [physical activity] in the prevention of obesity-related cancer irrespective of an individual's body weight," Ming Sun, Department of Clinical Sciences, Lund University, Sweden, and colleagues write. Still, "the greatest risk reduction occurred in the presence of both high physical activity and normal weight."
The study was published online April 1 in the International Journal of Cancer.
Previous research indicates that being physically active reduces a person's risk of certain obesity-related cancers. But whether greater activity and lower body weight act together to prevent cancer remains unclear.
In the study, investigators examined the impact of leisure-time physical activity on obesity-related cancers as well as the combined effect of activity and BMI (< 25 and ≥ 25 kg/m2) on cancer risk in 570,021 individuals from five Scandinavian cohorts.
