Health UK CU- Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women worldwide, however rates for men are generally lower than 1%. Physical fitness has long been associated with multiple health benefits including lowering of risk for cancer.
A study led by Cancer Council Victoria in Australia, and including the Bristol Medical School: Population Health Sciences further confirmed the need for exercise, to keep breast cancer at bay. The results were identical irrespective of types and stages of the cancer which was a Mendelian randomization study.
Mendelian randomization is an analytical method evaluating genetic variation, where the study focused on lifelong physical activity levels and static inactive lifestyles.
Observational studies demonstrated a link between physical inactivity and sedentary behavior leading to an elevated breast cancer risk, however providing evidence for this was not straight forward.
The study also explored Mendelian randomization to evaluate lifelong physical activity and sitting time that are causally related to breast cancer risk in general, and specifically on what types of tumors.
The researchers looked at a variety previous data and publications and concluded that a higher amount of genetically predicted sitting time was associated with a 104% increased risk for triple negative breast cancer which is one of the most aggressive cancers.
Finally, a greater level of genetically predicted sitting time was associated with a 104% higher risk of triple negative breast cancer. These findings were the same across hormone-negative tumor types.
The results saw no change after taking into account the formation by a single gene of 2 or more apparently unrelated effects, such as smoking and overweight, for example.
