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Apr 2

Can Exercise Help Cut the Rate of Breast Cancer Recurrence? A New Study Shows it Might – Allure Magazine

Exercise Programs Comments Off on Can Exercise Help Cut the Rate of Breast Cancer Recurrence? A New Study Shows it Might – Allure Magazine

Over the last several years, exercise has emerged as a new kind of medicine one proven to boost moods, protect brain cells, shrink fat, and help us age more slowly . Now science is suggesting it may even offer a unique advantage to certain breast cancer survivors. This weekend, at the American Association for Cancer Research annual meeting, Christina M. Dieli-Conwright, an assistant professor of research in biokinesiology at the University of Southern California, presented new evidence that shows that regular exercise can promote anti-inflammatory effects in the fatty tissue of breast cancer survivors, potentially decreasing their chances of recurrence.

The obesity-cancer connection was first explored on a large scale in a 2003 epidemiological study from the American Cancer Society, which found that those who are obese have a much higher risk of dying from their cancer than those who are of a healthy weight. There are certain types of cancer that have a stronger relationship with obesity and mortality, and one of them is breast cancer, says Dieli-Conwright, whose research focuses primarily on womens cancers, in her role as a researcher at the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center. There are more than 2.5 million breast cancer survivors in the U.S. about 64 percent of them are overweight, according to one study. The risk of death from breast cancer in obese women is 33 percent greater than in women of average weight, Dieli-Conwright notes.

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Recently, a significant amount of attention [has been paid] to the field of obesity and cancer, says Dieli-Conwright, with esteemed medical journals like Clinical Oncology , dedicating special issues to the topic, and the emergence of new NIH [National Institutes of Health] programs that solicit for funding to promote this area in particular, she adds.

Which brings us back to Dieli-Conwrights study. To grasp the findings, you need to know a few key facts about fat. For starters, fat tissue, especially when in excess, churns out a variety of inflammatory chemicals, like hormones and cytokines, which essentially relegate the obese person to a chronic state of low-grade inflammation. And according to Conwrights study abstract, this relentless inflammation is a central mechanism by which obesity stimulates cancer progression. Among the inflammatory substances secreted by fat are immune cells that accumulate during obesity and develop into macrophages.

As it pertains to cancer and obesity, there are certain types of macrophages in fat cells that are bad [called M1s], and certain kinds that are good [M2s], says Dieli-Conwright. With our small pilot study, we wanted to show for the first time that exercise can target and improve the macrophage content in obese breast cancer survivors.

The 20 subjects were divided into an exercise group and a control group. The former participated in 16 weeks of supervised physical activity, while the latter simply maintained their normal level of exertion. The exercise program is very much in line with Surgeon General recommendations, says Dieli-Conwright. Its essentially the minimum we all need to be doing. It involved aerobic training, three times a week, at a moderate to vigorous intensity meaning subjects worked hard enough that they couldnt carry on a conversation while walking the treadmill or riding the bike and two days a week of resistance exercises, four upper-body and four lower-body, performed in a circuit fashion.

Fat biopsies taken from subjects following the 16-week program and compared to baseline revealed an 18 percent reduction in bad pro-inflammatory M1 macrophages, and a 13 percent jump in good anti-inflammatory M2s. Researchers also saw a significant drop in pro-inflammatory cytokines. Our results showed, at the tissue level, that exercise produces anti-inflammatory effects in the body, says Dieli-Conwright.

Her next study, which is still pending NIH funding (fingers crossed!), will aim to directly link this now-proven exercise-induced slash in inflammation to a lesser risk of breast cancer recurrence. Dieli-Conwrights ultimate goal, she explains, is to follow a large group of breast cancer survivors for a long period of time to see if the improvements in their fat tissue actually translate to better odds of staying cancer-free in the future.

We know thats a lot to take in so heres the bottom line according to Dieli-Conwright: "Inflammation in the fat may contribute to tumor growth and progression," she says. "By reducing inflammation through exercise, we may be able to decrease the risk of breast cancer mortality in obese women. Although larger studies are needed to confirm a direct link between exercise-induced reductions in inflammation and a decreased risk of cancer recurrence and mortality, our study certainly makes a strong case for looking at this link."

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Can Exercise Help Cut the Rate of Breast Cancer Recurrence? A New Study Shows it Might - Allure Magazine

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