The effects of physical activity and body fat mass on colorectal polyp recurrence in patients with previous colorectal cancer

We aimed to identify the effects of physical activity and body composition on colorectal polyp recurrence in patients with previous colorectal cancer. A total of 300 patients were selected randomly from the colorectal cancer survivor cohort of Severance Hospital (Seoul, Korea). Patients reported various recreational physical activities and received surveillance colonoscopy. Body composition was measured with a body composition analyzer. We compared patients who exercised for at least 1 hour/week (active) with those who exercised less frequently or not at all (sedentary). The active exercise group (n = 203) had a lower recurrence of advanced adenoma than the sedentary group (n = 97; 6.4% vs. 14.4%, P = 0.023). The prevalence of advanced adenoma recurrence decreased in an exercise dose-dependent manner (P_trend = 0.019). In multivariate logistic analysis, the independent factors associated with advanced polyp recurrence were body fat mass [OR, 7.601; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.583–36.485; P = 0.011] and active exercise (OR, 0.340; 95% CI, 0.143–0.809; P = 0.015). In Cox proportional hazards models, body fat mass (HR, 5.315; 95% CI, 1.173–24.083; P = 0.030) and active exercise (HR, 0.367; 95% CI, 0.162–0.833; P = 0.017) were the independent factors associated with cumulative advanced adenoma recurrence. In conclusion, exercising for at least 1 hour/week and low body fat mass were found to be related to lower rates of colorectal polyp recurrence in the surveillance of colorectal cancer survivors.