Even light intensity daily exercise has been found to decrease the risk of cancer. That could include an easy walking pace, but new research shows the more you pick up the pace, the lower that risk may be.

Researchers from the University of Hong Kong LKS Faculty of Medicine (HKUMed) recently examined the cancer risk of brisk walkers compared to those who go at a slow pace. The team says that walking speed can be a predictor of mortality, and it’s also linked with muscle loss, cardiovascular diseases, and dementia. They wanted to see if the same held true for cancer risk, as they say research has tended to focus on how often someone walks, not the intensity of their walking.

To conduct their study – published in the Journal of Cachexia, Sarcopenia and Muscle – the researchers examined lung, breast, colorectum, prostate, and stomach cancer rates in more than 430,000 participants in the UK Biobank study, who self-reported their walking pace, and more than 1,300 participants in the Hong Kong Osteoporosis Study, who had been timed during a six-meter walk.

After a median follow-up period of just under 11 years for the UK study and just shy of seven years for the Hong Kong study, the findings showed that brisk walkers in each study had 13% lower and 45% lower cancer risks, respectively, than slow-paced walkers. The difference was the starkest with lung cancer, for which brisk walkers had a 53% lower risk. This appears to be linked with lower inflammation and better cholesterol levels.

The team says the findings suggest the quality of a walk may be more important than just the quantity, which would support the idea of promoting energetic walking as a cancer prevention tool.

Cheung Ching-lung, study co-author and Associate Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Pharmacy at HKUMed, says, "Walking speed may be an important marker of physiological resilience linked to cancer risk. The lower levels of inflammation and healthier lipid profiles observed among fast walkers support the hypothesis that they may be in better overall health. This makes walking speed a simple but effective tool for assessing health status. The study also opens new avenues for future research, including exploring whether walking faster could help cancer patients recover more effectively and reduce the risk of developing cancer."

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