Healthy Lifestyles Reduce Prostate Cancer Mortality in Patients With Genetic Risk

November 23, 2022 by Elisa Becze BA, ELS, Editor

Patients with germline genetic variants that increase their risk of developing prostate cancer have a lower risk of developing lethal disease when following a healthy lifestyle, according to study findings (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eururo.2022.05.008) that researchers reported in European Urology.

The researchers prospectively followed 12,411 genotyped patients in the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study from 1993–2019 and the Physicians’ Health Study from 1983–2010 and quantified their genetic risk for prostate cancer using a polygenic risk score (PRS). During 27 years of follow up, 3,005 patients were diagnosed with prostate cancer and 435 lethal prostate cancer events occurred, with a fourfold increase for patients in the highest PRS quartile. However, patients in that quartile who followed a healthy lifestyle (defined as maintaining a healthy weight, engaging in vigorous physical activity, not smoking, and consuming a healthy diet) was associated with a decreased rate of lethal prostate cancer (1.6%) compared those with an unhealthy lifestyle (5.3%).

Adhering to a healthy lifestyle was not associated with a decreased risk of overall prostate cancer. Similar studies support the conclusions, with another recent finding of a 27% reduction risk of any type of death in former smokers.

“Our findings suggest that a genetic predisposition for prostate cancer is not deterministic for a poor cancer outcome,” the researchers concluded.

ONS’s Your Guide to Cancer Prevention (https://www.ons.org/books/your-guide-cancer-prevention) book is an evidence-based resource that oncology nurses can use to educate patients about strategies to reduce their genetic predisposition for certain cancers—and follow to lower their own personal cancer risk as well.


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