Cancer is the second leading cause of death among people living in the United States, having claimed the lives of more than 600,000 people in 2020. Lifestyle behaviors, such as poor dietary habits, smoking, and physical inactivity, are key drivers of many cancers. Findings from a recent study suggest that more than 46,000 cancer deaths could be prevented every year if people met current physical activity guidelines.

Physical activity is a broad term that describes both daily activities, such as gardening, doing household chores, or mowing the lawn, and classical forms of exercise, such as running, swimming, cycling, or boxing. Public health guidelines recommend that adults engage in at least 150 to 300 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity or 75 to 150 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity (or an equivalent combination of the two) weekly. They also recommend that adults engage in muscle-strengthening activities such as weight lifting at least twice weekly. These recommendations are based on robust evidence that regular physical activity supports a healthy immune system (a critical factor in cancer prevention), reduces chronic inflammation, and helps the body maintain healthy levels of hormones such as insulin and estrogen, which can drive certain types of cancers if unbalanced.

The authors of the study analyzed self-reported physical activity data for more than 550,000 adults who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. They obtained age-, sex-, and state-specific cancer incidence data from the United States Cancer Statistics database and ranked cancer incidence by site, such as the breast, colon, or other site.

Their analysis revealed that more than 46,000 new cancer cases each year – roughly 3 percent – were likely attributable to physical inactivity, even after taking age, sex, race, and ethnicity into account. Inactivity-related cancer rates varied considerably by geographical location, with the lowest rates in northern and western states (especially Utah, Montana, Wyoming, Washington, and Wisconsin) and the highest rates in southern states (especially Kentucky, West Virginia, Louisiana, Tennessee, and Mississippi). The most common form of cancer associated with physical inactivity was stomach cancer; the least common was bladder cancer.

These findings support those of previous studies demonstrating that physical activity plays a key role in reducing the risk of many types of cancer. Narrowing the findings to the state level can help state and community-level public health authorities design appropriate cancer prevention and control programs, potentially reducing the cancer burden nationwide.

• Link to study abstract.