Abstract
BackgroundTo compare change in level of physical activity between pre-and post- diagnosis of breast cancer in Chinese women.MethodsBased on an on-going prospective study consisting of a sample of Chinese women with breast cancer, a validated modified Chinese Baecke questionnaire was used to measure physical activity at baseline (12 months before cancer diagnosis), 18-, 36- and 60-months after diagnosis (over the previous 12 months before each interview).ResultsIn our cohort of 1462 Chinese women with a mean age of 52 years, the mean level of physical activity at post-diagnosis was 9.6 metabolic equivalent of task (MET)-hours/week, which was significantly higher than that at pre-diagnosis with mean level of 5.9 MET-hours/week (P < 0.001). The mean levels of physical activity at 18-, 36- and 60-months follow-up were 9.9, 9.8 and 9.3 MET-hours/week, respectively. There was no significant difference between any two of the three follow-ups at post-diagnosis. The proportions of participant who met World Cancer Research Fund/ American Institute for Cancer Research (WCRF/AICR) recommendation before and after cancer diagnosis were both low, being 20.7 and 35.1%, respectively. Compared to pre-diagnosis, most of the patients improved or had no change on level of physical activity at post-diagnosis, with the respective proportion being 48.2 and 43.8%.ConclusionsAdherence to current lifestyle recommendation for cancer survivors, Chinese women with breast cancer significantly increased level of physical activity level after cancer diagnosis, and such improvement was sustained to 5 years post-diagnosis. The proportion of patients who met the exercise recommendation for cancer survivors was still low. Encouraging patients on the importance of durable high level of physical activity in breast cancer survivorship is warranted.
Highlights
To compare change in level of physical activity between pre-and post- diagnosis of breast cancer in Chinese women
Study cohort The present study was based on a prospective cohort study titled “The Hong Kong NTEC-KWC Breast Cancer Survival Study (HKNKBCSS)”, which was designed to evaluate whether dietary phytoestrogens and other lifestyle factors affect breast cancer patients’ survival outcome [26]
With a more protracted follow-up, findings from the present study demonstrated that the level of physical activity was higher at 18-month follow-up compared to prediagnosis of cancer, and such increase was sustained at 36months and 60-months follow-up
Summary
To compare change in level of physical activity between pre-and post- diagnosis of breast cancer in Chinese women. In Hong Kong, breast cancer is the leading cancer, and more than 80% of newly diagnosed patients have early stage breast cancer [2]. Surgical treatment is the major maneuver in the management of early stage patients. Such procedure may lead to breast cancer related lymphedema (BCRL), axillary web syndrome (AWS) and cancer-related fatigue. Cancer-related fatigue is a common disabling conditions in breast cancer survivors [7]. Two meta-analyses including high quality studies have shown that supervised aerobic exercise was effective in improving cancer-related fatigue among breast cancer survivors [10, 11]
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