Women with early breast cancer may cut in half their risk of dying from the condition by eating a healthy diet and exercising moderately, regardless of how much they weigh.
 
So say cancer prevention experts at the University of California, San Diego, but they emphasize women must do both activities to increase their odds of living healthy lives.

“Even if a woman is overweight, if she eats at least five servings of vegetables and fruits a day and walks briskly for 30 minutes, six days a week, her risk of death from her disease goes down by 50 percent,” says John Pierce,  director of the university’s Cancer Prevention and Control Program. “The key is that you must do both.”

Moderate intensity

Previous studies have focused on the effect of either diet or exercise on breast-cancer survival – with mixed results. One of the positive findings came in 2005 from Boston’s Harvard Medical School, where researchers found women slashed their risk of dying from breast cancer by 50 percent by engaging in three to five hours of moderate exercise a week.

But Pierce’s study, which included nearly 1,500 women 70 and younger, is the first to look at both diet and physical activity. Pierce defined moderate exercise as activities equal to briskly walking for a half-hour a day, six days a week, he says.

In his project, the women had early-stage breast cancer, which had not spread beyond the original location. Previous studies have looked at the impact of diet or physical activity on breast cancer survival, with mixed results. His study, however, is the first to look at a combination of both in breast cancer.

The death rate stood at only 7 percent for women who were extremely overweight but were physically active and enjoyed healthy diets, approximately half of that seen for the rest of the study population.

“Of particular importance is that this halving of risk was seen in women who were not obese as well as in those who were obese,” says Cheryl Rock, a registered dietitian with the university’s Cancer Prevention and Control Program. “Also, the effect was not seen in women who practiced only one of the lifestyle patterns – high vegetable and fruit intake, or physical activity.”

Cancer experts applauded the new findings. 

"Women coping with breast cancer deserve to know that plant-based diets and regular exercise can spell the difference between life and death," says Jennifer Reilly, a registered dietitian and senior nutritionist with The Cancer Project., a program through the vegetarian-friendly Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine in Washington, D.C. "In the battle against breast cancer, fruits, vegetables, and other low-fat vegetarian foods may be our most powerful weapons."

Reilly notes more than 2 million women have survived breast cancer in the United States, but many eat fewer than five servings of fruits and vegetables a day, consume too much fat, and lead sedentary lifestyles.

A 2005 National Cancer Institute study found that breast cancer patients in the study who reduced their fat consumption lowered their risk of tumor recurrence by as much as 42 percent. High-fat foods, including beef, vegetable oils, and chicken, can boost the hormones that promote cancer cell growth, but most plant-based foods are naturally low in fat, Reilly says.

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Source: University of California, San Diego
Reference: Journal of Clinical Oncology

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