Walking Prevents Bone Loss From Prostate Cancer Treatment

Making News:

Exercise may reduce, and even reverse, bone loss caused by hormone and radiation therapies used to treat localized prostate cancer, according to a study presented last fall at the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology’s 49^th Annual Meeting in Los Angeles. Men with localized prostate cancer frequently receive radiation therapy followed by months of hormone therapy. Men undergoing hormone therapy lose 4%–13% of their bone density on an annual basis, whereas healthy men lose only 0.5%–1% per year, beginning in middle age. Men are typically not thought to be at risk for osteoporosis and bone fractures; however, for men on hormone therapy, the rate of bone loss is greater than it is for postmenopausal women.

The study involved 70 sedentary men with Stages I–III prostate cancer. The men were randomly assigned to either an exercise plan (walking 5 times a week for 30 minutes at a moderate pace) or usual care (no exercise) during radiation treatment. More than half of the participants also received hormone therapy. The results showed that hormone therapy subjects who walked maintained or gained bone density, while those who didn’t exercise lost more than 2% of their bone density in 8–9 weeks.

“Prostate cancer patients are not routinely advised to exercise,” said Paula Chiplis, PhD, RN, senior research assistant at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, in a press release. “Walking is one tool that prostate cancer patients can use to improve their health and minimize the side effects of cancer and cancer treatments. Walking has no harmful side effects, if done moderately, but it can dramatically improve life for men suffering from side effects from some prostate cancer treatments.”