While cancer deaths are declining, likely as we’re better at spotting the symptoms and treating the disease, the way cancer and its treatment can weaken muscles and reduce cardio fitness can impact survival.

The latest research shows that muscle and fitness is a good way to protect against these cancer deaths – news we should be sharing far and wide to help those at risk.

This isn’t the first time that cancer has been linked with muscle and fitness. Muscle strength and cardiorespiratory fitness are two of the most studied components of physical health due to their strong association with cardiovascular disease and cancer mortality, say the researchers.

To see if they come up with a conclusive link between fitness and strength and cancer deaths they went on to look at 42 studies published on the subjects, with a total of 47,000 adult participants with cancer.

The biggest finding was that cancer patients with high muscle strength and fitness levels had a 31-46% reduced chance of dying from cancer compared with those with low physical fitness levels.

Muscle strength was determined by handgrip strength – a key sign of overall strength and health – in most studies. ‘Low’ strength was classed as anything from under 13kg to under 25.1kg in women. ‘High’ strength was determined as anything over these cut-offs.

Muscle strength was particularly linked with a reduced risk of death in people with advanced cancer, as well as lung and digestive cancers. Overall, it was linked to a reduced risk of all types of cancer deaths by up to 31%.

Cardio fitness was determined with VO2max readings or walking tests. Those with high cardiovascular fitness reduced the risk of all cancer deaths by 46% and was particularly linked with a reduced risk of death among lung cancer patients.

Keeping fit and strong throughout your life is important, but as more people are likely to be diagnosed with cancer, maintaining that strength and fitness during treatment matters.

‘Our results are noteworthy especially when considering the detrimental effects of advanced cancer stages, where decreased muscle strength and mass, reduced cardio-respiratory fitness and heightened fatigue lead to poorer quality of life and increased risk of death,’ say the researchers.

As well as strength and fitness being used to test the risk of death in clinical settings, it also shows that we need to better support cancer patients to exercise during treatment. ‘Muscle-strengthening activities could be employed to increase life expectancy,’ added the researchers.

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