Physical exercise offers a number of health benefits particularly for patients diagnosed with breast cancer.
Several studies have found that engaging in physical activities can improve the quality of life and health of breast cancer patients with a meta-analysis showing that patients who are more physically active have reduced mortality risks compared to those with the lowest activity levels. Studies also found an association between reduction in physical activities and worse survival odds in women with breast cancer.
Caroline Dalton, from the UK breast cancer charity Breakthrough Breast Cancer, said that engaging in physical activities after breast cancer diagnosis can improve a patient's chances of survival. She also said that evidence show that exercise can help reduce breast cancer recurrence risks.
Despite the benefits they can gain from engaging in physical activities, a new study has found that many breast cancer patients do not exercise enough. For the study published in the American Cancer Society's (ACS) journal Cancer on June 9, Brionna Hair, from the Department of Epidemiology of the University of North Carolina, and colleagues looked at the physical activity levels of more than 1700 women between 20 and 74 years old before and after they were diagnosed with breast cancer.
The researchers also compared the level of the participants' exercise with the recommended amount of physical activities recommended by the American Cancer Society (ACS) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) of between 75 to 150 minutes of exercise per week depending on the type of physical activities.
The researchers found that only 35 percent of the participants met the recommended amount of physical activities. They also noted that despite the beneficial effects of exercise on women with breast cancer, 59 percent of the participants said that the level of their physical activities has declined after they were diagnosed of breast cancer. African-American women were also found to be less likely to meet the recommended amount of exercise than their white counterparts.
"Despite compelling evidence demonstrating the benefits of physical activity after a diagnosis of breast cancer, it is clear that more work needs to be done to promote physical activity in patients with breast cancer, especially among African American women," Hair and colleagues wrote.
The ACS said that one in eight American women will develop invasive breast cancer. It also estimates that more than 232,000 women in the U.S will be diagnosed of invasive breast cancer in 2014.
