You can cut your cancer death risk with just 30 minutes of walking daily, a new study has revealed. It says that physically fit people are less likely to die from the disease. Researchers at Karolinska Institute in Sweden have found that people who do at least half-an-hour exercise every day have a 34 per cent lower chance of being killed by cancer than those who do not.

"The study shows, for the first time, the effect that very simple and basic daily exercise such as walking or cycling has in reducing cancer death risk in middle-aged and elderly men," lead researcher Prof Alicja Wolk said.

They monitored the health and exercise levels of over 40,000 men, aged between 45 and 79, for seven years to reach the conclusion, the British Journal of Cancer has reported. During that time, 3,714 of the participants developed cancer and 1,153 died from their disease. The findings showed that exercise had a significant influence on cancer survival and a smaller impact on incidence.

In fact, men who walked or cycled at least 30 minutes a day were 34 per cent less likely to die from cancer than men who exercised less or not at all.

The same activities led to only a five per cent reduction in cancer rates, a result which could be due to chance. However, a more intensive programme of walking and cycling for between an hour and an hour and a half a day was associated with a 16 per cent lower cancer incidence, the study found.

"This study gives us a clear indication that men who exercise are less likely to die from cancer," The Daily Telegraph quoted Dr Lesley Walker of Cancer Research UK, which publishes the journal, as saying.