Physical activity and incident pancreatic cancer: results from the UK Biobank prospective cohort

Abstract

Background: the relationship between physical activity and incident pancreatic cancer is poorly defined, and the evidence to date is inconsistent, largely due to small sample sizes and insufficient incident outcomes. Using the UK Biobank cohort dataset, the association between physical activity levels at recruitment and incident pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) at follow-up was analysed.

Method: physical activity, the key exposure, was quantified using Metabolic Equivalent Task (MET) values and categorised into walking, moderate, and vigorous activity. These categories were each analysed in quartiles. Summed activity was analysed both in quartiles and using International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) activity levels (low, moderate, high). Univariate hazard ratios (HRs) and multivariable-adjusted HRs (aHRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated using Cox regression analyses.

Results: a total of 542 incident PDAC cases and 2,139 controls (1:4 matching for age and sex) with a median (IQR) follow-up of 6.8 (1.7) years were analysed. No significant association was found in walking, moderate, and vigorous activities. In summed activity, only the 3rd quartile showed a statistically significant inverse association with PDAC risk (aHR 0.67, 95% CI 0.52-0.86, p<0.01). For IPAQ activity, the moderate and high activity groups showed borderline statistically significant associations with incident PDAC (aHR 0.80, 95% CI 0.63-1.00, p=0.05, and aHR 0.80, 95% CI 0.64-1.01, p=0.06, respectively).

Conclusion: the large UK Biobank cohort study did not show a strong association between physical activity levels and the development of incident PDAC.

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Identifiers

ORCID for Christopher D. Byrne: orcid.org/0000-0001-6322-7753

ORCID for Declan McDonnell: orcid.org/0000-0001-9088-9875

ORCID for Zaed Hamady: orcid.org/0000-0002-4591-5226

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