Hormonal
Breast cancer survivors who engage in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (≥9 MET-hours/week) experience a significantly reduced risk of breast cancer recurrence and all-cause mortality compared to inactive survivors.
Aim for at least 9 MET-hours of moderate-to-vigorous activity per week, which translates to roughly 3 hours of brisk walking. This level of activity is strongly associated with a 50% reduction in breast cancer-specific mortality and recurrence risk. If you were inactive before diagnosis, increasing your activity to this level post-diagnosis offers the greatest survival benefit.
The landmark study is the Nurses’ Health Study... After adjusting for factors predictive of survival after breast cancer, compared with women who engaged in less than 3 MET-hours/week of physical activity, the relative risk (RR) of death from breast cancer was... 0.50 (95% CI, 0.31–0.82) for 9 to 14.9 MET-hours/week... the RR of breast cancer recurrence was... 0.57 (95% CI, 0.38–0.85) 9 to 14.9 MET-hours/week.
Why this rating
Evidence is primarily from observational cohort studies (Nurses' Health Study, LACE, WHI) which are subject to self-reporting bias, though consistent across multiple large cohorts.
Source
Lifestyle Interventions to Improve Cardiorespiratory Fitness and Reduce Breast Cancer Recurrence
Mark J. Haykowsky et al. · American Society of Clinical Oncology Educational Book · 2017
DOI 10.1200/edbk_175349
More from this paper
- Combined diet and exercise interventions are superior to either intervention alone for improving cardiorespiratory fitness (peak VO2) and reducing body weight in overweight/obese breast cancer survivors.Good
- Breast cancer survivors have significantly reduced cardiorespiratory fitness (peak VO2) compared to healthy controls, primarily due to impaired central cardiovascular function (lower stroke volume and cardiac output) rather than peripheral muscle extraction deficits.Good
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