An easy way to avoid breast cancer recurrence

Exercise reduced breast cancer recurrence mortality by 40 percent

Oleg Lischuk, N+1

The results are published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (Hamer, Warner, Lifestyle modifications for patients with breast cancer to improve prognosis and optimize overall health).

Breast cancer is the most common oncological disease in women, accounting for about a quarter of all malignant tumors in them. Thanks to modern screening methods, primarily mammography, up to 90 percent of breast cancer cases in developed countries are detected at an early stage and successfully operated on, but up to a quarter of patients later die from metastases and relapses. Numerous studies have shown that some aspects of lifestyle can affect the risk of relapses, but an integral large-scale comparison of their effects has not yet been carried out.

To find out the role of various factors on the risk of recurrent breast cancer, two employees of the Sunnybrook Center for Health Sciences in Toronto conducted a meta-analysis of 67 high-quality large-scale studies (including reviews and previous meta-analyses) on this topic.

It turned out that regular physical exercises have the greatest impact on the risk of relapse: 150 minutes of moderate loads evenly distributed throughout the week, or 75 minutes of intense loads per week, including two or three strength workouts involving all major muscle groups. Such physical activity is associated with a 41 percent reduction in breast cancer mortality after treatment.

The second most important factor was the normalization of body weight – overweight increased the risk of death from cancer after treatment by 11 percent, and obesity – by 35 percent. Various components of the diet did not significantly affect mortality.

It is difficult to say exactly how the beneficial effect of exercises is realized. According to one of the authors of the work, Ellen Warner, one of the possible explanations may be a decrease in inflammation that damages cells and increases the risk of cancer spread.

Annie McTiernan from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, who was not involved in the work, noted that the results should be treated with caution. The study participants chose their own exercise regimen, and women with an undiagnosed recurrence of breast cancer could exercise less due to increased fatigue. To clarify the possible role of this factor, it is necessary to conduct randomized controlled trials, McTiernan believes.

Recently, the Cancer Research UK charity has allocated multimillion-dollar grants to two laboratories for basic breast cancer research. Cambridge University will have to micro-photograph sections of tumors to build their VR models, which should facilitate the training of doctors and research. The Netherlands Cancer Institute will analyze histological and clinical data of thousands of patients and create an algorithm based on them to predict when an early form of breast cancer – ductal carcinoma in situ, which is well treatable – will transform into an invasive malignant tumor.

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru  22.02.2017