Energy balance
Obesity is a modifiable risk factor for breast and colorectal cancer progression and survival, and excess body weight is a primary mechanism through which diet and physical activity confer benefits.
Maintaining a healthy weight is crucial for breast and colorectal cancer survivors. While specific dietary compositions (like low-fat) may help, the primary benefit of diet and exercise comes from managing body weight. Survivors should focus on sustainable lifestyle changes to avoid excess body weight, as this is a key modifiable risk factor for recurrence and progression.
Evidence from observational studies do increasingly indicate that obesity is a modifiable risk factor for both breast and colorectal cancer progression and survival... evidence suggests that the mechanism of benefit from diet and physical activity pertains to body weight, with excess body weight being a risk factor, which is modifiable through lifestyle.
Why this rating
Based on a synthesis of 43 records, including observational studies and RCTs, though direct RCT evidence for weight loss alone is noted as paucity.
Source
The role of diet and physical activity in breast, colorectal, and prostate cancer survivorship: a review of the literature
Nicola J Davies et al. · British Journal of Cancer · 2011
DOI 10.1038/bjc.2011.423
More from this paper
- A low-fat dietary intervention (reducing fat intake to 15% of calories) improves recurrence-free survival and overall survival in breast cancer survivors, particularly those with hormone-receptor-negative disease or without hot flushes.Good
- Physical activity has a dose-response relationship with better cancer outcomes, and there is more support for physical activity interventions than for dietary interventions in improving survival.Good
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