Cardiorespiratory fitness and smoking-related and total cancer mortality in men

Abstract

LEE, C. D., and STEVEN N. BLAIR. Cardiorespiratory fitness and smoking-related and total cancer mortality in men. Med. Sci. Sports Exerc., Vol. 34, No. 5, pp. 735–739, 2002. We investigated the association between cardiorespiratory fitness and smoking-related, nonsmoking-related, and total cancer mortality in men. We followed 25,892 men, age 30–87 yr, who had a preventive medical evaluation, including a maximal exercise test and self-reported health habits. There were 335 cancer deaths (133 from smoking-related cancer, 202 from nonsmoking-related cancer) during an average of 10 yr of follow-up (259,124 man-yr). After adjustment for age, examination year, smoking habits, alcohol intake, body mass index, and diabetes mellitus, there was an inverse association between cardiorespiratory fitness levels and smoking-related (P P We conclude that cardiorespiratory fitness may provide protection against cancer mortality in men.