die of the disease, versus those in the bottom 25%, the investigators found.
But for those same men, lifestyle also had a big impact. Those who stuck with at least four of the six healthy lifestyle factors cut their odds of dying from prostate cancer by 45%, versus men who adhered to few or none.
So which lifestyle has the highest chance of lowering your risk?
Of all lifestyle habits, Kibel says, exercise seemed most important, followed by maintaining a healthy weight.
The findings do not prove that those healthy habits, per se, saved some men’s lives. But Dr. William Dahut, chief scientific officer at the ACS, calls the results “encouraging.”
“What’s interesting is this suggests that a healthy lifestyle may not decrease your risk of developing prostate cancer, but may decrease your risk of lethal prostate cancer — which is much more important,” Dahut shares.
Do you know your genetic risk?
In the real world, men would not know their polygenic risk score, but both doctors say that could change in the coming years.
For now, you can get some sense of your genetic risk based on family history, though that’s not the whole story, Dahut adds. Having a father or brother with prostate cancer more than doubles your risk of developing the disease, according to the ACS.
Based on the latest findings, Kibel says he suspects that a healthy lifestyle would help lower the excess risk linked to family history.
There was no evidence that lifestyle changed the risk of lethal prostate cancer among men at lower genetic risk. That, Kibel says, may be because few of those men died of the disease — making it hard for any lifestyle measure to show an impact.
However, there are plenty of reasons beyond prostate cancer for men to adopt healthy habits, both doctors add.
“People are generally happier when they’re in good physical shape,” Kibel notes.
He also encourages men to learn about their family medical history. While women typically have a good sense of that, Kibel says, he has found that male patients usually don’t know if any relatives have had prostate cancer.