Regular exercise, e.g. brisk walking may decrease incidences of breast cancer in African American women.
A recent study in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, researchers from Boston University’s Slone Epidemiology Center found strong evidence linking physical exercise to a lower rate of breast cancer in African American women, a group in which previous evidence has been lacking.
A large prospective study of the health of black women, the Black Women’s Health Study (BWHS), researchers collected information about exercise habits and type of exercise followed over 44,000 African American women for 16 years and observed whether they developed breast cancer.
They found women who exercised vigorously for 7 or more hours each week were 25 percent less likely to develop breast cancer, compared to those who exercised less than 1 hour per week. Vigorous activity included basketball, swimming, running and aerobics. The results were similar if women walked briskly, but there was no benefit for walking at normal pace. The results did not differ by the estrogen receptor status of the breast cancer
Contact: Gina DiGravio, gina.digravio@bmc.org
