By CINDY LADAGE
Illinois Correspondent

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, initiated by major breast cancer charities to increase awareness of the disease and to raise funds for research into its cause, prevention and cure.

According to the American Cancer Society, breast cancer represents 25 percent of cancer for women; some studies have linked living on a farm with increased risk. (Over a lifetime, women also have a 1-in-8 chance of developing lung cancer.)

Although these statistics are a bit grim, there may be good news down the pike for women who beat the disease and hope to keep it from coming back. Dr. Laura Rogers, associate professor of internal medicine at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, has received funding for a promising new study that may shed light on ways to reduce the recurrence of breast cancer through exercise.
“We have received seed money and internal funding for this project,” Rogers explained.

If this study serves up positive results, she hopes that more funding will come along to create an even larger study. Breast cancer patients who have finished acute therapy and completed chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy are enrolled in an aerobic exercise program and strength training program that runs 12 weeks.

“They start out slow and gradually work up to 150 minutes of walking a week and with strength training, about twice a week,” Rogers said.

“Walking is something that everyone can do. The strength training will depend on the individual and what they can do.”

The next step is to help patients learn how to implement the program into their daily lives. “We know that finding time to exercise is difficult. We are using patients that are not currently exercising in their daily routine,” she said.

To make this easier, SIU is taking steps to increase the success of keeping the patient involved.

“We are enrolling them in group sessions with a behavior change expert. They also go to about 15 individual sessions with an exercise specialist,” she said.

The specialists SIU is using are specifically trained in sports medicine. “An exercise specialist has a specialist certification and understands chronic diseases,” Rogers explained.

“They have training beyond a personal trainer. There is also a new certification for exercise training with cancer patients.”

Counseling is also part of the program. Since the disease takes an emotional and physical toll, counseling can help patients recognize the need to take steps to increase their personal health.

From the patients enrolled in the study, Rogers said they randomly choose patients and assign them to either the exercise intervention right away, or have them wait four months before beginning the intervention. The patient is then checked to see how exercise affects their blood markers of inflammation.

“Inflammation seems to be related to cancer and maybe to tiredness and sleeplessness,” she said.

The question the study is trying to answer is if exercise intervention helps reduce the inflammation enough to make a difference.
“Inflammation causes pain. Inflammation is a normal response to injury,” Rogers said.

“We hope we can tip the balance to reduce inflammation.
“Breast cancer is one of the few cancers that exercise seems to show reduction in reoccurrence and death. The sooner we reduce the risk, the better. Oncologists are becoming more aware that we need to do this.”

The first phase of the pilot study included eight individuals.
“We are just getting going. The SimmonsCooper Cancer Institute at SIU and Memorial Medical Center Foundation has been very supportive,” Rogers said. “Right now we have nine that have started the second phase of the study and about five more scheduled to come in.” She hopes to add another 12.

The benefits of exercise and its effect on a healthy lifestyle have been known for years.

In fact, being in shape is also a deterrent to getting breast cancer in the first place.

“Try to maintain a healthy weight. Obesity contributes to breast cancer,” Rogers explained.

To maintain a healthy weight, she said it is important to do moderate intensive activity at least 30 minutes a day, at least five days a week. Keeping a pedometer and counting steps is one way to adhere to a healthy exercise program.

It is easy to think one is walking the recommended 10,000 steps a day, but “many farm women will work around the house and in their gardens, and we often fool ourselves into thinking we are moving more than we really are,” Rogers explained.

A pedometer will document the true number of steps.
Besides walking, watching how much one eats is a way to keep weight in check.

The public will have to wait a while for results from the breast cancer exercise program. “There is no data yet,” she said. “We won’t have it until everyone finishes, it will be another year and a half.”
For those concerned about breast cancer, Rogers said the American Cancer Society website at www.cancer.org is a great place to get more information.