It is well known that exercise beneficially improves physical function, reduces fatigue, and improves quality of life overall. However, we’re still learning details about how exercise protects the cardiometabolic health of men on ADT. This is an important area of investigation, given the increased risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes associated with ADT.
Researchers from Australia recently conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis on the effects of exercise on various markers of metabolic health in prostate cancer patients receiving ADT. The data came from 15 different studies, involving 939 men (age 46-86 years).
There is a wealth of markers of cardiometabolic health, including diastolic and systolic blood pressure (BP), fasting blood glucose, C-reactive protein (an inflammatory marker), whole-body lean mass, whole-body fat percentage, blood lipid metabolism, and VO2peak. Many more measures of cardiometabolic health are available and to the authors' credit, a comprehensive list of markers was included in their assessment.
What the authors found was that certain markers of cardiometabolic health showed greater benefit from exercise for men on ADT than others. The greatest benefit of exercise was seen in diastolic blood pressure, fasting blood glucose, C-reactive protein, whole-body lean mass, appendicular lean mass, whole-body fat mass, and trunk fat mass. Exercise also improved performance on the 400-metre-walk test, an indicator of exercise capacity.
Although there was considerable variability in terms of the type and intensity of exercise interventions included in the studies, results overall highlight the potential for exercise to meaningfully affect men’s cardiometabolic health while on ADT.
To read the study abstract, see: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32860010/
Bigaran, A., Zopf, E., Gardner, J., La Gerche, A., Murphy, D. G., Howden, E. J., Baker, M. K., & Cormie, P. (2020). The effect of exercise training on cardiometabolic health in men with prostate cancer receiving androgen deprivation therapy: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Prostate cancer and prostatic diseases, 10.1038/s41391-020-00273-5. Advance online publication.