Abstract 5271: Exercise intervention alleviates inflammation-related biomarkers in breast cancer survivors
Authors: Vyas Aditi , Ding Yuan Chun , Flores Sarah , Johnson Megan , Riazi Gabrielle , Mortimer Joanne , Neuhausen Susan , Dehart Jessica Clague 
Published: August 2018

Purpose: In this pilot study we assessed the feasibility of breast cancer survivors exercising at Curves facilities, and examined stress-related biomarkers to explain the association between exercise and reduction in cancer associated co-morbidities.

Methods: 50 sedentary, estrogen-positive, postmenopausal breast cancer survivors were recruited from the City of Hope, of whom 50% were randomized into a 16-week Curves exercise intervention. Adherence to the exercise/control regimen was followed through the 16 weeks. Body measurements and blood samples were taken at each time point. Samples were analyzed using genome-wide RNA sequencing and inflammation measured using a 13 Plex Immunology Multiplex Assay and a C-reactive protein assay.

Results: Although insignificant variation in weight loss was observed between the two groups after 16 weeks, the exercise group did show a reduction in 12 of the 14 measurable inflammation markers compared to the control group. The average fold change after 16 weeks showed that women in the exercise group had a 40% and 25% reduction in the proinflammatory markers CRP and IL-6, respectively, when compared to the control group. Additionally, a greater number of women in the exercise group showed an overall decrease in proinflammatory markers including IL-6, CRP, TNF-α and IL-8 when compared to the control group; 80% of the women in the exercise group showed reduced levels of IL-8 at 16 weeks compared to control group where only 36.4% of women had any reduction in IL-8 levels. Interestingly, irrespective of the exercise intervention, analyses based on their exposure to radiation therapy (RT), showed that women who underwent RT exhibited increased levels of all 14 inflammation markers at 16-weeks while women who had not been given RT showed a slight decrease in 13 of the 14 inflammation markers. The gene expression profiling results for the exercise group showed 435 differentially expressed (DE) genes post-intervention, when compared to the gene expression at baseline (p=0.05). Several of these DE genes are involved with inflammatory response, interleukin and interferon signaling pathways. Interestingly, the difference at baseline between the breast cancer survivors from this study and a group of women without a history of cancer from a parallel exercise study by our team showed a drastic variation, with a total of 2,543 DE genes (p=0.05), with most of the DE genes associated with catabolic cellular processes.

Conclusion: Our results indicate that moderate levels of exercise, even without weight loss, could potentially be useful in alleviating inflammation and stress-related biomarkers in breast cancer survivors. The expression-level variation at baseline between women with and without a history of breast cancer could be attributed to the oncogenic and chemotherapy-related stress in the breast cancer survivors. Further gene set enrichment analysis is needed for all groups.

Citation Format: Aditi Vyas, Yuan Chun Ding, Sarah Flores, Megan Johnson, Gabrielle Riazi, Joanne Mortimer, Susan Neuhausen, Jessica Clague Dehart. Exercise intervention alleviates inflammation-related biomarkers in breast cancer survivors [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2018; 2018 Apr 14-18; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2018;78(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 5271.