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Fitness & Exercise for Senior Citizens
Second Massive Study Confirms Strenuous Exercise
Prevents Breast Cancer
Study released today included women up to age 79
 Feb. 26, 2007 – The second massive study finding
strenuous physical activity can help women – even senior citizens –
increase their resistance to invasive breast cancer by more than 20
percent was published today in the Archives of Internal Medicine, one of
the JAMA/Archives journals. Over 125,000 women were studied in the two
research projects and included women up to 79 years of age.
Today's study says women who regularly engage in
strenuous physical activity may have a lower risk of developing both
invasive breast cancer and in situ (early-stage) breast cancer than
women who do not.
(See the first study in side bar.)
“Few established risk factors for breast cancer are
easily modifiable,” the authors write as background information in the
article. Physical activity has been associated with breast cancer risk
and may be one of the few risk factors that women can control.
“Questions remain regarding the amount and intensity of physical
activity and the periods when activity provides the greatest breast
cancer risk reduction.”
Cher M. Dallal, M.S., University of Southern
California, Los Angeles, and colleagues studied 110,599 women age 20 to
79 who were part of the California Teachers Study, established in 1995
and 1996.
At the beginning of the study, the women were asked
about their average participation in moderate (such as brisk walking,
golf or volleyball) and strenuous (including swimming laps, aerobics and
running) physical activity from high school to their current age and
also in the past three years. The women also provided information about
other breast cancer risk factors, including race, family history and use
of hormone therapy.
Through 2002, 2,649 women were diagnosed with
invasive breast cancer and 593 with in situ breast cancer. Women who
reported participating in strenuous activity for more than five hours
per week over the long term had a 20 percent lower risk of invasive
breast cancer and 31 percent lower risk of in situ breast cancer than
women who participated in less than 30 minutes of strenuous activity per
week.
“Long-term moderate physical activity and strenuous
and moderate activity in the past three years were not associated with
invasive breast cancer,” the authors write. Similarly, moderate activity
did not appear to influence the risk of in situ breast cancer.
The researchers also examined the association
between strenuous physical activity and the risk of breast cancer by
hormone receptor type, or which hormones can bind to proteins on the
surface of the tumor. Strenuous activity appeared to be associated with
a lower risk of estrogen-receptor–negative but not
estrogen-receptor–positive breast cancers.
“In summary, these results provide additional
evidence supporting a protective role for long-term strenuous
recreational physical activity on risk of invasive and in situ breast
cancer, whereas the beneficial effects of moderate activity are less
clear. For invasive breast cancer, strenuous and moderate physical
activity affect risk of estrogen-receptor–negative tumors, but neither
affects risk of estrogen-receptor–positive tumors.”
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