HHS HealthBeat (March 13, 2007)

Exercise versus breast cancer

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I'm Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

Regular vigorous exercise may help some women reduce their risk of invasive breast cancer. Researchers found that in survey data on more than 15,500 women.

Exercisers without a family history of breast cancer cut their risk of invasive breast cancer 27 percent if they exercised strenuously six or more hours a week.

Lead author Brian Sprague of the University of Wisconsin Carbone Comprehensive Cancer Center says doing less might also help. He found trends – not so strong that he could be sure – but he says other studies have indicated lesser benefit with less work.

"We believe that the most reliable interpretation is that, holding all other factors constant, the risk of invasive breast cancer goes down as the exercise levels go up." (9 seconds)

The study in Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Learn more at www.hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I'm Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: April, 06 2007