Research
Mixed
Higher levels of physical activity beyond the recommended 15 MET hours/week do not provide additional cancer risk reduction for curvilinear cancers (kidney, gastric, liver, non-Hodgkin lymphoma), whereas linear cancers (breast, colon, endometrial) continue to show reduced risk with higher activity.
If you already do 15+ MET hours of activity per week, you do not necessarily need to increase it further for cancer prevention, especially for liver, kidney, or gastric cancer risks, as the benefit plateaus. However, for breast and colon cancer, higher levels may still offer additional protection. Focus on consistency rather than excessive volume.
WeakQualifiesHIGH confidence
Associations for kidney and gastric cancer... liver cancer... and non-Hodgkin lymphoma in women... seemed to be curvilinear, with a plateau in risk reduction at higher levels of activity. For these cancers, engagement in more physical activity was associated with little, if any, additional risk reduction.
Why this rating
Large pooled cohort, detailed spline analysis.
Source
Amount and Intensity of Leisure-Time Physical Activity and Lower Cancer Risk
Charles E. Matthews et al. · Journal of Clinical Oncology · 2019
DOI 10.1200/jco.19.02407
cohort · n=755459Cited 288×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- Engaging in 7.5-15 MET hours/week of leisure-time physical activity significantly lowers the risk of seven specific cancer types (colon, breast, endometrial, kidney, myeloma, liver, and non-Hodgkin lymphoma) compared to no activity.Weak
- Body Mass Index (BMI) is a primary mediator for the protective effect of physical activity on endometrial cancer, as adjusting for BMI eliminates the association, whereas it has limited effect on other cancer types.Weak
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