February 2007 – In a study conducted by researchers from the University of Wisconsin’s Paul P Carbone Comprehensive Cancer Center (UWCCC) results showed that the women who engaged in six or more hours of strenuous physical activity each week reduced their risk of developing invasive breast cancer by as much as 23 percent. In addition, the reduction in breast cancer risk was apparent regardless of when the physical activity took place—early in the woman's life, in the postmenopausal years or in the recent past. A woman's hormone levels naturally fluctuate throughout her life, and we have found that exercise likely offers protection against breast cancer regardless of a woman's stage in life. The take-home message for women should be that it is never too late to begin exercising," Brian Sprague, research assistant at UWCCC and the study's lead author, said in a recent press release.
November 2008 - According to a study of more than 32,000 postmenopausal women, vigorous exercise may cut risk of breast cancer by 30 percent in normal-weight women. According to the authors of the study, which was published recently in the journal Breast Cancer Research, “Possible mechanisms through which physical activity may protect against breast cancer that are independent of BMI [body mass index] include reduced exposure to growth factors, enhanced immune function, and decreased chronic inflammation, variables that are related both to greater physical activity and to lower breast cancer risk.”
May 2008 — Girls and young women who exercise regularly between the ages of 12 and 35 have a substantially lower risk of breast cancer before menopause compared to those who are less active, new research shows. In the largest and most detailed analysis to date of the effects of exercise on premenopausal breast cancer, the study of nearly 65,000 women found that those who were physically active had a 23 percent lower risk of breast cancer before menopause. In particular, high levels of physical activity from ages 12 to 22 contributed most strongly to the lower breast cancer risk. The study, by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Harvard University in Boston is available online in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
“We don’t have a lot of prevention strategies for premenopausal breast cancer, but our findings clearly show that physical activity during adolescence and young adulthood can pay off in the long run by reducing a woman’s risk of early breast cancer,” says lead investigator Graham Colditz, M.D., Dr.P.H., the Niess-Gain Professor and associate director of Prevention and Control at the Siteman Cancer Center at Washington University School of Medicine and Barnes-Jewish Hospital. “This is just one more reason to encourage young girls and women to exercise regularly.”
April 2009 – Recent information shows how exercise can improve breast cancer survival rates. Women who participate in recreational exercise and sports over their lifetime may be lowering their risk of death from breast cancer and breast cancer recurrence. Reuters Health Information (2009-04-15).
Among 1,231 women with breast cancer who were followed for a minimum of 8.3 years, those who obtained about 4 hours or more of weekly moderate-intensity recreational activity over their lifetime had a 44 percent lower risk of death from breast cancer, report Dr. Christine Friedenreich and colleagues. These findings suggest "being physically active before a breast cancer diagnosis can improve survival after breast cancer", Friendenreich told Reuters Health. For more information on this study, please visit this link: http://www.reutershealth.com/archive/2009/04/15/eline/links/20090415elin004.html