More physical exercise is ‘highly likely’ to lower breast cancer risk, study shows

It is “very likely” that increasing physical activity levels and reducing the time spent sitting will reduce the risk of breast cancer, according to new research.

The findings, published online Tuesday in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, were generally consistent across types and stages of the disease, leading the researchers to recommend a greater focus on exercise as a way to prevent cancer. from mom

“These findings are very important for cancer control efforts around the world,” according to one of the authors of the research paper, Associate Professor Brigid Lynch from the Division of Cancer Epidemiology at Cancer Council Victoria in Australia.

“To date, cancer control has not put a huge emphasis on increasing physical activity, and this research shows that we need to literally and metaphorically intensify it,” he said.

The research paper notes that observational studies have reported that active lifestyles are associated with a lower risk of breast cancer, but whether activity is the protective factor could not be determined conclusively from these.

This study provides “strong evidence” that higher levels of physical activity and less sedentary time are likely to reduce breast cancer risk, with generally consistent results across breast cancer subtypes, according to the article.

The study used Mendelian randomization, a technique that uses genetic variants as proxies for a particular risk factor, to assess whether lifetime physical activity and time sitting might be causally related to overall breast cancer risk, and specifically with different types of tumors.

They included data from 130,957 women of European descent. Of these, 69,838 had tumors that had spread locally and 6,667 had tumors that had not yet spread. The remainder was a comparison group of 54,452 women who did not have breast cancer.

The women participated in 76 studies under the auspices of the Breast Cancer Association Consortium (BCAC), a forum for researchers interested in hereditary breast cancer risk.

The researchers then built on previously published studies to genetically predict how physically active or inactive participants in their own study were. The next stage was to estimate the overall risk of breast cancer, based on whether or not the women had gone through menopause; and by the type, stage, and grade of the cancer.

Analysis of the data showed that a higher overall level of genetically predicted physical activity was associated with a 41 percent lower risk of invasive breast cancer, and this was largely independent of menopausal status, tumor type, stage or the grade.

Genetically predicted vigorous physical activity on three or more days of the week was associated with a 38 percent lower risk of breast cancer, compared with no self-reported vigorous activity. A higher genetically predicted level of sitting time was associated with a 104 percent increased risk of triple-negative breast cancer.