Exercise Delays Breast Cancer
in Women with Mutated Genes

Women who inherit mutations of certain genes are at an 82 per cent lifetime risk of developing breast cancer and have a 23 to 54 per cent risk of ovarian cancer, according to a study that analysed the health records of more than a thousand Jewish women.

The study, appearing in the journal Science, also found that exercise and maintaining a healthy weight during adolescence delays the onset of breast cancer even in women who have mutations of the BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene.

Finding that cancer could be delayed, even for high risk women, by exercise and sensible eating during the teen years is "a source of hope," said Mary-Claire King, first author of the study and a professor of genome sciences at the University of Washington, Seattle.

King said the study found that women who exercised actively when they were young - either dancing, or in team sports, or just walking a lot - and who maintained a healthy weight through the age of 21, were somewhat protected from breast cancer.

"If they carried the mutation, they still had a very high risk, but their age of diagnosis was pushed to later in life," she said.

The study helps to clear up some of the confusion about the risks associated with the BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene mutations, said Dr. Kenneth Offit, a physician and researcher at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York.

Earlier studies had suggested that the breast cancer risk from the gene mutations ranged from 25 to 80 per cent. The new study firmly nails the lifetime risk at 82 per cent. For ovarian cancer, the study found the lifetime risk was 54 per cent for BRCA1 and 23 per cent for BRCA2 mutations.

Reference Source 102

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