Conclusions : The available literature suggests that African American breast cancer survivors adhere to interventions of various modalities and are capable of making modest to significant changes .
Background : African American breast cancer survivors have a higher incidence of estrogen receptor negative and basal-like ( e.g. , triple negative ) tumors , placing them at greater risk for poorer survival when compared to women of other racial and ethnic groups .
While access to equitable care , late disease stage at diagnosis , tumor biology , and sociodemographic characteristics contribute to health disparities , poor lifestyle characteristics ( i.e. , inactivity , obesity , and poor diet ) contribute equally to these disparities .
Lifestyle interventions hold promise in shielding African American survivors from second cancers , comorbidities , and premature mortality , but they are often underrepresented in studies promoting positive behaviors .
This review examined the available literature to document health behaviors and lifestyle intervention ( i.e. , obesity , physical activity , and sedentary behavior ) studies in African American breast cancer survivors .
Dietary patterns and survival after breast cancer diagnosis.
PURPOSE There is little prior study of major dietary patterns and breast cancer survival . METHODS Patients included 2,619 Nurses ' Health Study participants who were diagnosed with invasive breast cancer between 1982 and 1998 and completed a dietary question naire more than 1 year after diagnosis . Participants were followed through 2002 ( median = 9 years ) . During follow-up , 414 patients died of any cause , 242 patients died of breast cancer , and 172 patients died from causes other than breast cancer . Women with in situ or metastatic disease at diagnosis were excluded . We used Cox proportional hazards models to evaluate prospect i ve associations of prudent and Western dietary patterns assessed both before and after diagnosis with time to event after diagnosis . RESULTS In multivariate-adjusted analyses assessed after diagnosis , the Western and prudent dietary patterns were unrelated to all-cause or breast cancer mortality . However , compared with women with the lowest intake of the prudent dietary pattern , the relative risks ( and 95 % CIs ) of death from causes other than breast cancer were 0.85 ( 95 % CI , 0.53 to 1.35 ) , 0.74 ( 95 % CI , 0.45 to 1.21 ) , 0.70 ( 95 % CI , 0.42 to 1.17 ) , and 0.54 ( 95 % CI , 0.31 to 0.95 ; P = .03 , from lowest to highest quintile of intake ) . In contrast , the Western dietary pattern was positively associated with this outcome ( P = .04 ) . Results for the assessment of dietary patterns before diagnosis were similar , except the prudent dietary pattern was unrelated to mortality . CONCLUSION A higher intake of the prudent pattern and a lower intake of the Western pattern may protect against mortality from causes unrelated to breast cancer
Conclusions : The available literature suggests that African American breast cancer survivors adhere to interventions of various modalities and are capable of making modest to significant changes .
Background : African American breast cancer survivors have a higher incidence of estrogen receptor negative and basal-like ( e.g. , triple negative ) tumors , placing them at greater risk for poorer survival when compared to women of other racial and ethnic groups .
While access to equitable care , late disease stage at diagnosis , tumor biology , and sociodemographic characteristics contribute to health disparities , poor lifestyle characteristics ( i.e. , inactivity , obesity , and poor diet ) contribute equally to these disparities .
Lifestyle interventions hold promise in shielding African American survivors from second cancers , comorbidities , and premature mortality , but they are often underrepresented in studies promoting positive behaviors .
This review examined the available literature to document health behaviors and lifestyle intervention ( i.e. , obesity , physical activity , and sedentary behavior ) studies in African American breast cancer survivors .