Research
Men with prostate
cancer aged 43‒74 achieve bigger and stronger muscles, improve functional
capacity, gain positive social experiences and the desire to remain active
through playing football for 12 weeks. These are the findings of the “FC
Prostate” trial, jointly conducted by the University Hospitals Centre for
Health Care Research at The Copenhagen University Hospital, Rigshospitalet and
the Copenhagen Centre for Team Sport and Health at the University of
Copenhagen.
Regained
body pride and strong social cohesion
The acclaimed
Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports is today publishing
two articles on recreational football (soccer) for 43‒74-year-old men with
prostate cancer. The first article shows that twice-weekly 1-hour football
training sessions for 12 weeks produce an increase in muscle mass and muscle
strength despite concurrent androgen deprivation therapy. The second article
describes how recreational football is a promising novel approach for health
promotion in prostate cancer patients as the participants regain pride in their
bodies, develop team spirit and mutual concern increasing their motivation for
long-term participation in sport.
“This is the
first study of its kind in the world, and the results clearly show the
potential of recreational football in the rehabilitation of prostate cancer
patients,” says project leader Julie Midtgaard, a psychologist at The
Copenhagen University Hospital Rigshospitalet. “Just 12 weeks of football
training resulted in the men regaining control and developing a unique exchange
of feelings and recognition centered around the sport.”
The attendance
rate was high over the 12 weeks, and many of the participants are still playing
football two years after the project began.
“The provision of
football proved to be a good way of developing friendships between the men and
a unique model for men with prostate cancer to take responsibility of their own
health without giving up their claim to feel and behave like men,” concludes
Midtgaard.
Bigger
and stronger muscles in spite of anti-hormone treatment
“Androgen
deprivation therapy through medical castration is an effective treatment of
prostate cancer patients but has adverse effects in the form of reduced muscle
mass, higher fat percentage and reduced physical activity,” explains Professor
Peter Krustrup, who co-initiated the study with Midtgaard and has been studying
the effects of recreational football for the past 10 years.
“Twelve weeks of
football training increased muscle mass by half a kilo in the football group in
spite of the anti-hormone treatment and contributed to a 15% increase in muscle
strength. The players in the FC Prostate team thus achieved excellent gains in
functional capacity as a result of 12 weeks of football training, measured
among other things as a 8% improvement in performance in the stand-sit test,”
says Krustrup.
“Our study also
showed that recreational football was fun and inclusive for the participants in
FC Prostate, and for every training session the intensity was high, with an
average heart rate of 85% of the participants’ maximum heart rate,” says
Krustrup.
Football
is good rehabilitation for prostate cancer patients
“Previously, we
showed that recreational football is effective for preventing and treating
lifestyle diseases. With this study, we can add that recreational football can
also be used for rehabilitation of a large group of cancer patients,” says
Krustrup.
Midtgaard
concludes: “The study indicates that men with prostate cancer benefit greatly
from recreational football, both physically and mentally. It has also proved to
be easy to keep the men involved in physical activity once they have started
playing football. They look forward to going to training and enjoy it
tremendously when they get there. The next step is to evaluate the
effectiveness of football in a more natural setting. Therefore we are delighted
that we have received the necessary funding to pursue an even bigger project in
collaboration with the Danish Football Association in which more than 300
prostate cancer patients will be invited to play football in local football
clubs in Denmark.”
About
the study
The training
project was a randomised controlled trial involving 57 men aged 67 (range:
43‒74) years who had been undergoing treatment for prostate cancer for an
average of 3 years. They were randomly assigned to a football training group or
an inactive control group. The football group trained twice a week for 1 hour
for 12 weeks.
The training took
place on the football pitch of the Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports
at Nørrebro in Copenhagen. An extensive testing protocol was used before the
start of training and on completion of the 12-week training period. The project
was implemented jointly by Rigshospitalet, the Copenhagen Centre for Team Sport
and Health at the University of Copenhagen and the Department of Cardiology at
Gentofte Hospital.
The study was
supported by TrygFonden and The Centre for Integrated Rehabilitation of Cancer
Patients funded by the Danish Cancer Society and The Novo Nordisk Foundation.
With a view to extending football training to a bigger and broader target group
of men with prostate cancer, the project will be followed up with new research
to test football as a strategy for health promotion in conjunction with the
Danish Football Association and TrygFonden.
The two articles are
today being published in a special issue of the Scandinavian Journal of
Medicine & Science in Sports on the topic of football for health.
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