"It's never too late to engage in physical activity and patients should not worry if they feel that they may never reach the high levels of physical activity that some other people engage in."
Why should you exercise after cancer treatment?
Many studies have shown the undeniable benefits of exercise in improving overall health and quality of life, and in reducing the number of deaths from disease, especially colon, endometrial and breast cancer. However new research out of Concordia University on women with breast cancer suggests a link between physical activity and resistance to breast cancer recurrence.
Published in the Annals of Behavioral Medicine journal this week, the study shows that physical activity lowers the body’s inflammation and improves its immune response.
A team of researchers led by Concordia professor Carsten Wrosch, who holds the research chair in aging and health, looked at blood levels of C-reactive protein (CRP), an important biomarker for chronic inflammation. High concentrations of the protein have been linked with reduced survival rates and death.
Wrosch’s team followed 138 women who were diagnosed and treated with surgery, chemotherapy and radiation for stage I to III breast cancer. The study assessed patients as they went about their daily lives. Researchers looked at CRP levels over a year, every three months, in conjunction with exercise levels, as measured by an accelerometer, a device that senses movement or vibrations from the time the women got up in the morning to their bedtime.
In general, the women did between 14 and 17 minutes of exercise a day, which is below the recommended activity level, but not uncommon among breast cancer survivors.
Those who exercised moderately — walking, bicycling, gardening — lowered their CRP levels. And those who exercised more vigorously than usual — jogging, hiking, swimming laps — lowered their levels even more.
Interestingly, researchers found that CRP levels dipped even during times when survivors did just a bit more physical activity than usual.
The implication is that a little activity goes a long way, Wrosch wrote in an email exchange.
“CRP concentrations were almost 50 per cent reduced among those survivors who either engaged in more physical activity or during times when they engaged in more physical activity than usual,” he said. “It’s never too late to engage in physical activity and patients should not worry if they feel that they may never reach the high levels of physical activity that some other people engage in.”
A strength of the study is the comparison of activity and CRP levels between different patients and in individuals over time.
The implication is that promoting exercise among cancer survivors may be a low-cost and effective way of improving cancer survivors’ health outcomes, the study suggests.
The study was supported by Canadian Institutes of Health Research grant.