Healthy lifestyle may help improve bowel cancer survival: study

Patients with bowel cancer may have a better chance of survival if they follow lifestyle guidelines about diet, physical activity and maintaining a healthy weight, according to a study recently published by UK journal BioMed Central.

It has been suggested that lifestyle factors before and after diagnosis of bowel cancer can influence survival rates. To investigate this further, a group of researchers led by a team from Imperial College London analyzed the data of 520,000 participants from 10 countries in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) cohort study. During the study period of an average of 6.4 years, 3,292 participants were diagnosed with bowel cancer.

The researchers developed a scoring system based on guidelines for both cancer prevention and cancer survival. A six-point score was constructed for men based on recommendations in the guidelines about body weight, physical activity, food and drinks, etc., while women had a seven-point score, which included the added factor of breastfeeding, according to the study.

Researchers found that for both groups, the higher the score, the lower the risk of mortality after bowel cancer.

When the individual recommendations were studied, findings were that having a healthy weight and high fruit and vegetable consumption had the strongest survival rates, according to the researchers.

There was also a link between women who breastfed and their survival of bowel cancer, researchers said.

Lead researcher, Dora Romaguera said the results show that a healthy lifestyle not only prevents developing bowel cancer but also, in those who eventually developed it, it improves survival. Endit