Exercise May Help Breast Cancer Patients Beat Disease

Exercise not only helps reduce the risk of getting breast cancer, but it may also help women who have the disease to beat it, according to a new study.

In many ways, Susan de Vries, a 43-year-old mother of three, is in great physical shape, especially considering that four years ago, she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

"After my mastectomies, (I) got right out there and started walking pretty much right away," de Vries said. "I mean, I remember one week after my surgery, walking. I was staying at my parents', walking down my parents' driveway, very proud of myself that I made it that far."

Now she exercises about four hours a week, which a new study says could cut her risk of dying from breast cancer in half.

In the study, published in Wednesday's issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association , researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston studied about 3,000 breast cancer patients, tracking their health and exercise habits for up to 18 years.

"Compared to the most inactive women, just about any amount of physical activity was linked with a lower risk of death of breast cancer," said Dr. Michelle Holmes.

But that doesn't mean breast cancer patients have to become serious athletes.

"Women do not have to run marathons to gain the maximum benefit," Holmes said. "We found that women who performed activity at the level of walking three to five hours per week gained the most benefit."

Holmes said the likely reason that exercise helps is that it reduces the body's hormone production. High hormones can cause most breast cancers to grow.

Holmes stressed that all the women in the study received standard treatment for breast cancer, so exercise is not a substitute for such treatment.

She also said that federal government health recommendations are that all adults should be physically active three to five hours a week, so her recommendations for breast cancer patients match that government recommendation for everyone.