Risk Reduction by Exercise

• Physical activity is one modifiable risk factor through which women can reduce their risk for breast cancer.7

Fatigue and Pain Related Exercise Benefits

• Between 72 and 95% of all cancer patients experience fatigue as a result of cancer treatments. 29
• Exercise improves cancer treatment-related fatigue. Fatigue is a major side effect and obstacle for cancer treatments such as chemotherapy, radiation, surgery and stem cell transplants. 29
• Regular exercise guidelines defined by the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) are described as resistance training at least two times a week, and aerobic training most if not all days of the week.

 Physiological Evidence of Exercise Benefits

General

• Increased physical activity significantly reduces serum estrone, estradiol, and free estradiol in postmenopausal women and thus may reduce the risk of breast cancer. 29
• The risk of developing prostate cancer may be reduced with physical activity, especially moderate physical activity. 
  Physical activity does not have to be exhausting to be beneficial to health.

Aerobic

• After a 24 week exercise regimen, cancer patients showed a significant improvement in resting heart rates (RHR), fatigue resistance via treadmill test, and predicted max aerobic capacity VO2 test. 29

Anaerobic

• Twenty-four weeks after an exercise program, resistance strength training measurements of cancer patients increased 15.44% in FVC, strength based functional activities increased over 50% compared with the control group.34