Adherence to healthy lifestyle found to cut breast cancer recurrence, mortality

Strongest adherence to cancer prevention lifestyle recommendations is associated with reductions in disease recurrence and mortality among patients with high-risk breast cancer, according to a study published online May 4 in JAMA Network Open.

Rikki A. Cannioto, Ph.D., Ed.D., from the 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 disease recurrence or mortality in the prospective, observational cohort Diet, Exercise, Lifestyles, and Cancer Prognosis Study. Participants included 1,340 chemotherapy-naive patients with pathologic stage I to III high-risk breast cancer (65.3 percent had hormone receptor-positive breast cancer). An aggregated lifestyle index score was composed 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 multivariable analyses.

"Strongest adherence to recommendations for smoking, physical activity, fruit and vegetable intake, and sugar-sweetened beverage consumption was most consistently associated with improved outcomes," the authors write. "Importantly, significant survival advantages were consistently observed in patients diagnosed with more aggressive breast cancer subtypes."

Several authors disclosed financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry; the study was partially funded by Amgen.

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