Exercise May Help Breast Cancer Patients Survive

Activity in year prior to diagnosis improved outlook, study found

By Kathleen Doheny
HealthDay Reporter

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MONDAY, Sept. 11 (HealthDay News) -- Women who are physically active in the year before they receive a diagnosis of breast cancer are more likely to survive the disease, a new study finds.

"We found a beneficial effect on survival for exercise undertaken in the year before diagnosis, particularly among women who were overweight or obese near the time they were diagnosed with breast cancer," said study author Page Abrahamson, a postdoctoral researcher at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.

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Abrahamson led the research while at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

The study is published in the Oct. 15 issue of Cancer.

In the study, Abrahamson's team analyzed data on nearly 1,300 women ages 20 to 54 who were diagnosed with invasive breast cancer between 1990 and 1992. They asked the women about their average frequency of moderate and vigorous physical activity when they were age 13, 20 and during the year before their diagnosis.

An abundance of regular exercise before diagnosis was associated with improved disease outcomes. The association was particularly strong for women with a body mass index (BMI) of more than 25 -- the statistical threshold for overweight -- who also reported the highest levels of physical activity in the one year before their diagnosis. (For reference, a woman 5 feet 5 inches tall who weighs 150 pounds has a BMI of 25.)

Overall, women with rated in the highest 25 percent, in terms of their level of activity, were 21 percent more likely to survive than those rated in the bottom quarter. The benefits for women with BMIs above 25 who had high levels of activity rose; they were 30 percent less likely to die than those with BMIs above 25 who engaged in low levels of activity.

Activity in the teen years or early adulthood did not have an impact on survival, the researchers said.

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