Adding to mounting evidence that exercise can be a powerful weapon against cancer, new research finds that even modest levels of physical activity -- including walking to work and performing household tasks -- may cut a woman's risk for endometrial cancer by as much as 40 percent.

"Patterns of exercise participation were associated with a 35 to 40 percent reduction in endometrial cancer," said study author Charles E. Matthews, who presented his findings Monday at the American Association for Cancer Research's annual meeting in Orlando, Fla. "The public health message is that an active lifestyle, whether from exercise or other domains of your life, confers substantial benefit."

This benefit is apparently not restricted to endometrial cancer, which is cancer of the uterine lining. Two other studies found benefits of physical activity on surviving after breast cancer and on different biomarkers related to cancer survival and risk, HealthDay reports.