Home Cardiology Prediagnosis Exercise May Reduce CV Risk in Breast Cancer

Prediagnosis Exercise May Reduce CV Risk in Breast Cancer

Incidence of composite cardiovascular events decreased across increasing total MET hours/week

THURSDAY, Oct. 24, 2019 (HealthDay News) — For women with primary breast cancer, prediagnosis exercise exposure is associated with a graded reduction in subsequent cardiovascular event (CVE) risk, according to a study published in the September issue of JACC: CardioOncology.

Tochi M. Okwuosa, D.O., from the Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, and colleagues examined whether prediagnosis exercise reduces the risk for subsequent CVE in 4,015 women with confirmed primary breast cancer. Patients were followed for a median of 12.7 and 8.2 years for cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality and CVEs, respectively.

The researchers identified 324 CVEs, 89 myocardial infarctions, 49 new diagnoses of heart failure, and 215 CVD deaths during follow-up. Across categories of increasing total metabolic equivalent task (MET) hours per week, the incidence of composite CVEs decreased in multivariable analysis. Compared with <2.5 MET hours/week, the adjusted hazard ratios were 0.80 (95 percent confidence interval, 0.59 to 1.09) for 2.5 to <8.6 MET hours/week; 0.9 (95 percent confidence interval, 0.64 to 1.17) for 8.6 to <18 MET hours/week; and 0.63 (95 percent confidence interval, 0.45 to 0.88) for ≥18 MET hours/week.

“These findings add to the growing evidence highlighting the importance of exercise to manage cancer treatment-related acute and chronic late effects in the large and growing number of cancer survivors,” the authors write.

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