Prolonged sitting for long hours may increase cancer risk in women

The researchers found leisure sitting was linked to with a 10 per cent higher risk of cancer – even after factors such as total physical activity, body mass and other factors were taken into account.

Researchers looked at about 70,000 men and 77,000 women who participated in a long-running study called the American Cancer Society Cancer Prevention Study II Nutrition Survey cohort.

Women who spend their leisure time sitting have ten percent increased changes of developing different types of cancer such as ovarian and breast cancer.

“Further research is warranted to better understand the differences in associations between men and women”, the study said. During this time, 18,555 of the men and 12,236 of the women participants were diagnosed with cancer. The researchers investigated leisure time which is spent sitting and site specific cancer incidence. Furthermore, those diagnosed with non-hormone sensitive invasive cancer gained up to 7 pounds, while those who received chemotherapy as treatment upped their weight by 11 pounds. It also is one of the few to explore the association between cancer treatment and weight gain. No significant weight gain was seen among those diagnosed with breast cancer more than five years before T1 or those treated with hormonal therapy for their estrogen receptor-positive cancer.

Researchers compared a group of women who survived breast cancer with a similar group of women who did not have the disease in a new study published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention. The association, however, was not found in men. Yet, according to a study, breast cancers caused by mutations in those two genes are quite rare – about 5 to 10 percent.

Patel and his research team raised concerns about how today’s generation is leading a more static and immobile life, when it comes to home recreation or private leisure time. Because breast cancer rates tend to rise around menopause, doctors weren’t sure whether the weight gain was part of normal aging and changes in women’s reproductive status, or whether something about cancer made patients more vulnerable to gaining weight. “Our study finds that despite the health-enhancing benefits of physical activity, this alone may not be enough to reduce the risk for disease”.

The American Cancer Society has put together a list of guidelines which advice people to cut down sitting in a chair for several hours in a row whenever possible.