A two and half hours a week of exercise can help women not only to live longer but are also more likely to remain cancer-free after their treatment, according to a recent study.
These are the findings of a comprehensive analysis of exercise and its protective role for high-risk breast cancer patients. The study suggests that even a modest amount of exercise can be beneficial.
“Aiming for as little as two and half hours a week of exercise – the minimum under federal guidelines – can have a big impact for women with high-risk breast cancer,” said study lead Rikki Cannioto, PhD, EdD.
“Our research shows that some physical activity is far better, in terms of cancer survival than no activity at all and it is just as beneficial as longer workouts,” Cannioto added.
Cannioto’s study was part of a clinical trial run by SWOG Cancer Research Network, a cancer clinical trials network funded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and a member of the oldest and largest publicly-funded research network in the nation. Study results are published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute and featured in the most recent edition of the NCI’s Cancer Currents blog.
Research has long shown a positive correlation between exercise and cancer survival. People who exercise more – before or after cancer treatment – appear to live longer.
What makes the SWOG study unique is that it also showed, among the high-risk breast cancer patients it studied, those who exercised had a lower chance of their breast cancer returning after treatment.
Another new twist is the time scale of the study. Patients were not only asked about their exercise before and after cancer treatment – but during chemotherapy, too.
Cannioto, an assistant professor of oncology in the Department of Cancer Prevention and Control at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, wanted to determine the impact of the amount of exercise, and its timing, on women with breast cancers that are high-risk, or likely to return. She addressed this question in the context of the Diet, Exercise, Lifestyle and Cancer Prognosis Study (DELCaP), led by Christine Ambrosone, PhD, from Roswell Park and her SWOG collaborators. (ANI)
