Exercise Linked to Lower Breast Cancer Risk in Black Women

Vigorous exercise on a regular basis might help protect black women against an aggressive form of breast cancer, researchers have found.

The new study included nearly 45,000 black women, aged 30 and older, who were followed for nearly 20 years. Those who engaged in vigorous exercise for a lifetime average of three or more hours a week were 47 percent less likely to develop so-called estrogen receptor-negative breast cancer compared with those who exercised an average of one hour per week, the investigators found.

This type of breast cancer, which includes HER2-positive and triple-negative tumors, is linked to both higher incidence and death risk in black women, compared to white women. These estrogen receptor-negative tumors do not respond to the types of hormone therapies used to treat tumors that have the estrogen receptor, the researchers said in a Georgetown University Medical Center news release.

No level of exercise affected the women's risk for estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer, according to the study findings, which were presented Wednesday at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.  http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_143378.html