What type of exercise can best affect the quality of life for breast cancer patients? It's a question the BC Cancer Agency and University of British Columbia are trying to answer through a new study: Supervised Trial of Aerobic vs Resistance Training (START).
Recent research has begun to document how exercise can affect the quality of life for breast cancer survivors receiving chemotherapy. What researchers don't know is which type of exercise might be most beneficial: aerobic or weight training.
"Although there is discussion about exercise, we are just beginning to research issues of what kind of exercise is possible, of value, and appropriate for cancer patients," explains Dr. Karen Gelmon, a BC Cancer Agency physician and researcher. "We are also interested in knowing what exercise does to hormonal levels and what overall impact exercise may have on the quality of life and care of breast cancer patients. This study is just the beginning."
The START program will be recruiting 70 patients in the Lower Mainland over the next two years. Participants will undergo a physical fitness assessment before between their first and second chemotherapy treatment, including a treadmill exercise test, muscle strength test, and body composition. The study volunteers will be randomly assigned into three groups: aerobic exercise, weight training, or delayed exercise.
This program is part of a multi-centre study, involving 210 patients in Vancouver, Edmonton and Ottawa. Ultimately this study, if successful, will lead to a larger study looking at the possible impact of exercise on the risk of breast cancer recurrence and survival.
In order to qualify for the study, women must:
- Have breast cancer
- Have completed any necessary surgery
- Have no metastases, diabetes or cardiac disease
- Have not yet started chemotherapy, but be scheduled to receive chemotherapy
Participants will be asked to exercise, under the supervision of study coordinator Diana Jespersen, three times a week for the course of the study. They will continue their fitness program for three weeks after the end of their chemotherapy, when they will have another fitness assessment.
For Connie Ratzlaff, currently a breast cancer patient at the BC Cancer Agency, being accepted into the START program was something positive in an otherwise difficult time. Ratzlaff, a stretch and strength instructor at Dunbar Community Centre, was encouraged to take a break from teaching her regular fitness classes when she was first diagnosed. The START program offered her the chance to continue her exercise routine.
"I'm benefitting already, because exercise is something that I look forward to," explains Ratzlaff. "This study is a good idea, because it involves patients in finding ways to improve the future for other breast cancer patients."
A specially designed and equipped fitness room for this project was partially outfitted through
annual French Dressing Jeanswear Mother's Day Run. The event is sponsored annually by French Dressing Jeanswear. As well, funds have come from A Breast in a Boat, and the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation.
"The BC Cancer Foundation is delighted to have been able to contribute to this very important breast cancer exercise study, through the proceeds of the French Dressing Jeanswear Mother's Day Run," says Mary McNeil, BC Cancer Foundation president and CEO. " All of us have a friend or family member who has battled breast cancer, and we know how vital it is to keep raising funds for this kind of research at the BC Cancer Agency."
For more information, or to arrange an interview, please contact:
Nicole Adams
Public Relations Officer
BC Cancer Agency
(604) 877-6272
nadams@bccancer.bc.ca