Abstract
Purpose
Physical activity (pre- and post-diagnosis) has been studied in prevention and survivorship contexts for endometrial cancer. However, the association of physical activity (PA) across the lifespan on mortality risk among endometrial cancer survivors is understudied. The study’s objective was to identify the association of lifetime PA on mortality risk in endometrial cancer survivors.
Methods
Seven hundred forty-five endometrial cancer survivors drawn from a population-based cancer registry (diagnosed between 1991 and 1994) reported the frequency (sessions/week) of moderate- and vigorous intensity physical activity (MVPA) at age 12, age 20, and 5 years pre-interview (post-diagnosis). Cox proportional hazards were used to estimate hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals for the association between PA, all-cause, and cardiovascular disease mortality as assessed in 2016. MVPA was modeled using natural cubic splines.
Results
Diagnosis age, body mass index, and smoking (pack-years) were each positively associated with increased all-cause mortality risk. Those who did one session of MVPA 5 years pre-interview had a lower mortality risk (HR 0.61; 95% CI 0.41–0.92) compared to those with no MVPA. Those reporting one session of MVPA was similarly observed at age 12 (HR 0.95; 95% CI 0.86–1.06) and at age 20 (HR 0.87; 95% CI 0.65–1.16).
Conclusion
Those who participated in PA, compared to those who did not, in the 5 years before diagnosis had a lower mortality risk. While PA was not independently protective against mortality risk at ages 12 or 20, PA is still important for endometrial cancer survivors for other non-mortality outcomes.
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Data availability
Due to the nature of this research, participants of this study did not agree for their data to be shared publicly, so supporting data are not available.
Code availability
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by JG, supervised directly by LC-B. The first draft of the manuscript was written by JG and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. This study was approved by the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Health Sciences Institutional Review Board (Protocol #2015-1492).
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Gorzelitz, J.S., Trentham Dietz, A., Hampton, J.M. et al. Mortality risk and physical activity across the lifespan in endometrial cancer survivors. Cancer Causes Control 33, 455–461 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-021-01540-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-021-01540-z