Adherence to a healthy lifestyle reduces breast cancer recurrence and mortality

According to a study published online May 4 in Open JAMA Network.

Rikki A. Cannioto, Ph.D., Ed.D., of Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center in Buffalo, New York, and colleagues examined whether adherence to cancer prevention recommendations before, during, and one and two years after breast cancer treatment was associated with recurrence of disease or mortality in the Prospective Observational Cohort Study of Diet, Exercise, Lifestyles and Cancer Prognosis. Participants included 1,340 chemotherapy-naïve patients with pathological high-risk stage I to III breast cancer (65.3% had hormone receptor-positive breast cancer). An aggregate lifestyle index consisted of data from four time points and seven lifestyle variables.

The researchers found that patients with the highest versus the lowest lifestyle index scores experienced significant reductions in disease recurrence and mortality (hazard ratios, 0.63 and 0 ,42, respectively) in time-dependent multivariate analyses.

“The strongest respect for recommendations regarding smoking, physical activity“fruit and vegetable consumption and sugary beverage consumption were most consistently associated with better outcomes,” the authors write. “Importantly, significant survival benefits were consistently observed in patients diagnosed with more aggressive breast cancer subtypes.”

Several authors revealed financial links with the pharmaceutical industry; the study was partially funded by Amgen.