The association of resistance training with risk of ovarian cancer

Increasing evidence, including multiple putative inflammatory risk factors (e.g., c-reactive protein, and adiposity), supports that inflammation plays an important role in ovarian carcinogenesis. Resistance training (RT) is associated with lower levels of circulating inflammatory markers, independent of physical activity.

We evaluated the relationship between RT and risk of ovarian cancer accounting for other physical activity (e.g., walking) in two large prospective cohorts, the Nurses' Health Study (NHS) and NHSII.

In total, analyses included 42,005 NHS participants (2000-2016) and 67,289 NHSII participants (2001-2017) with RT assessed every 4 years. Multivariable Cox proportional hazards models were used to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of RT with ovarian cancer risk overall and by tumor subtype, adjusting for known and putative ovarian cancer risk factors. We identified a total of 609 cases over 1,748,884 person-years. No association was observed with overall ovarian cancer risk (RT ≥60 vs 0 min/wk, HR = 0.95, 95%CI: 0.74-1.22) or by histotype (comparable HR = 0.86 and 0.98 for type I and II tumors, respectively). Results did not differ by body mass index (Pinteraction = 0.97), or other physical activity (Pinteraction = 0.31).

We observed no evidence that moderate levels of RT were associated with risk of ovarian cancer. Further investigations are required to confirm these findings.