A study on exercise for cancer patients, presented at ESMO 2024, draws on data from the Breast Cancer Weight Loss (BWEL) trial.

This trial is exploring whether participating in a weight loss programme after a breast cancer diagnosis can reduce the risk of cancer recurrence in women with a body mass index (BMI) in the overweight or obese range.

The BWEL trial randomised 3,180 women with breast cancer to a group that received a telephone-based coaching programme focused on reducing calories and increasing exercise combined with health education materials versus health education materials alone.

The study’s primary goal is to determine whether the weight loss programme reduces the risk of cancer recurrence and secondary aims focus on evaluating whether the weight loss programme helps breast cancer survivors to exercise more and eat a healthier diet.

The study looks at changes in exercise in 541 BWEL study participants who took part in a substudy that evaluated their exercise patterns over time.

Half of the patients took part in the weight loss programme and the education programme, and the other half received educational materials only.

At the time of enrolling in the trial, patients in both groups did very little exercise—a median of zero minutes per week in the health education group and 10 minutes per week in the weight loss group.

By six months after enrollment, women receiving the weight loss programme increased their weekly exercise by a median 40 minutes and the women in the education group did not increase their exercise at all.

Additionally, women taking part in the weight loss programme were more likely to exercise at least 150 minutes per week—a level of exercise linked to many health benefits--and less likely to report no exercise at all, as compared to women in the education alone group.

Across all the patients in the study, those who engaged in at least 150 minutes of moderate or vigorous physical activity per week had greater weight loss than those who did not.

"Our results show that a telephone-based weight-loss intervention can motivate this group of patients to be more physically active," says the study's first author, Jennifer Ligibel, MD, the Director of the Leonard P.

Zakim Centre for Integrative Therapies and Healthy Living at Dana-Farber.

"We'll continue to follow these patients to determine whether changes in exercise influence cancer outcomes."

Source: Dana-Farber Cancer Institute