Keeping fit may help cut cancer risk

Staying fit can help reduce the risk of getting lung and colorectal cancer, a new study has revealed.

The study was led by researchers from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in the US and it analysed 49,143 adults who underwent exercise stress testing from 1991-2009.

The results of the study was published in the journal Cancer and it showed the fittest people more than halved their risk of developing bowel or lung cancer.

The fittest lung cancer patients were 44 per cent less likely to die and the fittest bowel cancer patients 89 per cent less likely, the study showed.

"Our findings are one of the first, largest, and most diverse cohorts to look at the impact of fitness on cancer outcomes," said Catherine Handy Marshall, from Johns Hopkins.

"Fitness testing is commonly done today for many people in conjunction with their doctors," Handy Marshall said in a statement.

"Many people might already have these results and can be informed about the association of fitness with cancer risk in addition to what fitness levels mean for other conditions, like heart disease," she said.

This study is the largest of its kind, as well as the first of its kind to involve women and a large percentage of non-white individuals.