Patients With Kidney Cancer Do Better With Exercise

Patients with kidney cancer who exercise and stay physically active have better physical and mental health, according to the findings of a study presented at the 2022 International Kidney Cancer Symposium: North America.

“Kidney cancer negatively impacts a patient’s physical and mental health from diagnosis, to treatment, into survivorship. It is crucial to consider modifiable behavioral factors in order to improve quality of life of this population. We hypothesize that a lack of physical activity or exercise is associated with worse physical and mental health,” the investigators said.

In this cross-sectional retrospective study, Daniel Roberson, MD, and colleagues surveyed physical activity and exercise in 576 patients with kidney cancer and survivors from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System database from 2016 to 2020.

According to the results, 37.7% of patients reported no physical activity or exercise in the last 30 days, whereas 62.3% reported physical activity or exercise in the same time period. The researchers observed that patients with kidney cancer who were active were markedly less likely to report poor mental status compared with those who were not active (odds ratio [OR], 0.41; 95% CI, 0.20-0.85; P=0.02). Furthermore, the researchers noted that physical activity and exercise had a similar impact on physical health (OR, 0.44; 95% CI, 0.27-0.72; P< 0.01).

“[Patients] who reported physical activity and exercise were significantly less likely to report poor mental and physical health,” the researchers concluded. “Our results highlight the importance of exercise and physical activity as a modifiable behavioral risk factor to improve quality of life, and we postulate that physical activity may serve to mitigate or prevent common side effects of kidney cancer diagnosis, treatment, and survivorship.”

Source: Roberson D, Alkhatib K, Pierorazio P. The role of exercise on the physical and mental health of kidney cancer patients and survivors. Poster 13. Presented at the 2022 IKCS: North America; November 4-5, 2022; Austin, Texas.