medwireNews: Being physically active could help to reduce the intensity of pain experienced by people with a history of cancer, suggests a large cohort analysis.
Writing in Cancer, the researchers explain that “physical activity is frequently encouraged for the management of several noncancer pain conditions but its benefits for cancer pain are not supported by strong evidence.”
To address this, they drew on the US Cancer Prevention Study II Nutrition Cohort to identify 10,651 adults with a history of cancer and 51,439 adults without such a history who provided information on their levels of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and pain intensity in the 2009 and 2011 surveys.
The median age of participants with and without a history of cancer was 78 and 77 years, respectively, and 58% of those in the former group and 38% in the latter group were men. The most common tumor type among the cancer survivors was prostate cancer, in 40%, followed by breast cancer, in 22%.
The team found that in people with a history of cancer, meeting or exceeding MVPA guidelines (defined as 7.5–<15 and ≥15 metabolic equivalent of task [MET] hours per week, respectively) in 2009 was associated with significantly less pain in 2011 relative to insufficient MVPA (>0–<7.5 MET h/week), with identical odds ratios (ORs) of 0.84.
This was also the case for people without a cancer history, among whom the respective ORs were 0.85 and 0.79.
Moreover, cancer survivors who became active or remained active between 2009 and 2011 had less pain than their counterparts who remained inactive, with significant ORs of 0.76 and 0.66, respectively.
And interestingly, even people who became inactive after initially being active had less pain than those who remained inactive throughout, with a significant OR of 0.79, which suggests that “the benefit of physical activity for pain intensity can be maintained even after a period of inactivity,” say the investigators.
“Replication of these findings via an intervention study represents a promising opportunity for future research,” they add.
Once again, the findings were similar in the group without a history of cancer.
Christopher Swain, from the University of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia, and co-workers also evaluated the relationship between physical activity and analgesic use but found no significant associations among those with a cancer history.
Describing the finding as “unexpected,” they say it “may reflect that although physical activity improves pain, it may not improve it enough to noticeably change analgesic use.”
The study authors also point out that they “cannot eliminate reverse causation, where greater pain causes less physical activity,” but a sensitivity analysis removing participants with no pain at baseline “did not meaningfully change the results.”
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