Yale Plans Closer Look at Exercise and Cancer

Studies will chart recovery of active women with breast or ovarian disease

Related Encyclopedia • Adenocarcinoma of the Lung and Brain Metastases • Amenorrhea • Amniocentesis • Amniocentesis and CVS More... Related Healthscout Videos Baby Steps: Fertility Findings Tumor Detecting App: Medicine's Next Big Thing? Powerful Combo Reducing Lymphedema Fighting Breast Cancer on Your Lunch Break More... Related Animations • Allergy • Breast Reduction • Breast Self-Exam Video • Colon Cancer More... Related Drug Information • Actonel • Detrol LA • Diflucan • Ditropan XL More... Related News Articles • Smoking May Up Cancer Risk in Barrett's Esophagus Patients • Prostate Size May Be Clue to Severity of Cancer • Many Gay Men Would Support 'Home HIV Test': Study • Young Adults Who Quit Smoking Feel Better Quickly More...

MONDAY, April 6 (HealthDay News) -- A Yale professor has received $7 million in federal grants for two studies into whether exercise affects ovarian and breast cancer recovery.

The U.S. National Cancer Institute funding will go to test theories that exercise along with traditional courses of treatment can improve survival rates as well as cancer patients' mental and physical health.

Text Continues Below

---

"Currently, after patients complete treatment for breast or ovarian cancer -- or any cancer, for that matter -- few if any rehabilitation or survivorship programs are available to help them get back to their activities of daily living," Melinda L. Irwin, an associate professor in the division of chronic disease epidemiology at Yale's School of Public Health, said in a university news release. "An exercise program may not only help alleviate side effects of treatment, but may also confer benefits to overall and cancer-related health." It's Irwin's studies that are being funded.

One study will see if participating in a program of moderate aerobic exercise after treatment for ovarian cancer makes a difference in a woman's body composition, quality of life and any hormone production that could be linked to ovarian cancer prognosis.

The other study will try to determine if exercise counters any of the negative side effects from the hormone therapies used to treat women recovering from breast cancer. Arthralgia, which causes severe joint pain similar to arthritis, and loss of bone density are among the side effects that lead some women to stop hormone therapy, which can dampen their recovery.

According to the cancer institute, more than 184,000 people in the United States were diagnosed with breast cancer in 2008, and about 41,000 died from the disease. About 21,650 new cases of ovarian cancer were diagnosed nationally in the same year, with more than 15,000 deaths.

More information

The U.S. National Cancer Institute has more about cancers that affect women.

-- Kevin McKeever