Cancer Resources > Cancer News > 2004 > March

Moderate exercise may improve odds of surviving breast cancer

Megan Rauscher

Last Updated: 2004-03-29 14:28:55 -0400 (Reuters Health)

ORLANDO (Reuters Health) - Moderate amounts of physical activity -- walking 1 to 3 hours per week -- after a diagnosis of breast cancer may improve survival, according to results of a study presented at the 95th annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research. Overweight women seem to benefit the most.

Dr. Michelle D. Holmes and colleagues from Harvard University in Boston used the Nurses' Health Study to assess the impact of physical activity on breast cancer survival. "Physical activity after a breast cancer diagnosis has been strongly linked to a better quality of life, but little is known about whether physical activity can actually lengthen life after breast cancer," Dr. Holmes said.

Among a cohort of more than 2000 women who reported their level of physical activity after being diagnosed with breast cancer between 1984 and 1996, 209 died of their disease by the end of follow up in 2002.

Leisure time physical activity was assessed every 2 years beginning in 1986 in metabolic equivalent task hours per week (met-hours/week). "One met is the energy expenditure at rest," Dr. Holmes explained. "Walking one hour at an average pace of 3 miles per hour a person expends 3 MET-hours," she noted.

Adjusting for breast cancer stage, BMI, and other factors, the relative risk of breast cancer death was 0.81 for women expending 3 to 8.9 met-hours/week. It was 0.46 and 0.58 for women expending 9 to 14.9 and 15 to 23.9 met-hours/week, respectively. "An analysis with breast cancer recurrence as the endpoint gave similar results.

"We were able to show that even a moderate amount of physical activity improved the odds of surviving breast cancer," Dr. Holmes said in a statement. "It is especially heartening for women recovering from breast cancer to know that the benefit is as readily accessible as walking for 30 minutes on most days of the week."

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