In a new study, researchers found a link between a slow walking pace and increased death risk in cancer survivors.
While the finding does not establish that slow walking is a cause of death, the association persisted across at least nine tumor types.
The research was conducted by a team at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and elsewhere.
In the study, the team examined over 233,000 participants who were ages 50 to 71.
The people answered questionnaires about their overall health and walking pace, and whether they had any disability related to walking, such as walking at a very slow pace or being unable to walk.
After the assessment, participants were followed for several years.
The team found compared with healthy controls enrolled in the study, cancer survivors were 42% more likely to report walking at the slowest pace and 24% more likely to report being disabled.
Among cancer survivors, those who walked at the slowest pace had more than a twofold increased risk of death from any cause, compared with those reporting the fastest walking pace.
The association between the slowest walking pace and a strongly increased risk of death from any cause held for nine cancer types, including breast, colon, melanoma, Non-Hodgkin lymphoma, oral, prostate, rectal, respiratory and urinary cancers.
The association between mobility disability (not just slow pace) and death was even stronger and included all nine of the cancers mentioned above, plus endometrial, endocrine, ovarian and stomach cancers.
While slow walking pace also was linked to increased mortality that was due to any cause among individuals without a cancer diagnosis, the risk of death more than doubled for cancer survivors.
Compared with individuals without a cancer diagnosis who walked at the fastest pace, cancer survivors who walked the slowest had more than a tenfold increased risk of death from any cause.
Cancer survivors with mobility disabilities had a more than fivefold increased risk of death compared with individuals with no cancer diagnosis or disability.
The researchers noted that cancer survivors reported difficulties walking five years or more after cancer diagnosis and treatment.
This suggests that the detrimental effects of cancer diagnosis and therapy are widespread across cancer types and long-lasting, creating opportunities for intervening to help such patients improve their walking ability and pace.
One author of the study is Elizabeth A. Salerno, Ph.D., an assistant professor of surgery.
The study is published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.
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