Abstract P1-12-17: Exercise and nutrition intervention on breast cancer survivors in Taiwan with BMI 25 or more to decrease BMI and maintain at an appropriate level -A preliminary report
Authors: Hsieh C-M , Yang N-C , Yang A-K , Tseng C 
Published: May 2019

It has been reported that lifestyle changes after completion of breast cancer treatment may decrease recurrence rate. Lifestyle was formed since childhood, and modified and sustained throughout lifetime. Usually, lifestyle changes are difficult without specific motivation.

Materials and Methods

Breast cancer survivors, aged from 20 to 80 years old with stage I, II, III, who have received surgery and completed courses of chemotherapy within 4 years, were candidates for the study.

According to the American Athletic Association sports guidelines, aerobic, muscular and extension exercises are taught by a sports instructor to the participants, and the participants were asked to exercise at home, 150 minutes a week, 30 minutes each time. Participants were instructed to calculate the calories they needed (25 calories/kg/day). Food selection and diet plan must meet the calories they have calculated, and a diet log was recorded.

The study of one-year diet and exercise intervention study was designed. Group meeting was started at the beginning and then held every 3 months. Measurements of body weight, height, body fat, BMI, waist circumference, muscle mass, and basal metabolic rate were performed; WHO quality of life and brief pain inventory (BPI) were also collected.

Results

A total of 32 breast cancer survivors were recruited, and 20 participants had completed one-year follow-up. Two of the participants withdrew from the study due to personal reasons, and the remaining 18 were included in the statistical analysis.

Body weight, BMI, and body fat decreased after interventions in diet and exercise and reached a significant lower level (p-value = 0.001, 0.002 and 0.01, respectively). In the linear regression model, it could be seen that body weight has a negative correlation with time; the body weight and BMI gradually decreased during the one-year period (β= -0.327, p-value=0.005; β= - 0.362, p-value=0 .002, respectively). There was no statistically significant change in waist circumference, muscle mass and basal metabolic rate.

BPI at baseline, 17 reported among 20 participants (80%) and decreased to 11% (2/18) at after one-year follow-up.

In the quality of life questionnaire, after the score calculation, the single factor repeated measurement analysis (calculated under the statistical power α=0.05) was used. There was no significant difference and change between the scores after the interventional measures. In the bivariate regression analysis, it was also seen that QOL had not changed due to weight loss, and there was no correlation between the two.

Discussion

This study results demonstrated that lifestyle adjustment can be motivated, and lifestyle can be changed by exercise and diet intervention; however, statistically, quality of life did not change with weight loss.

Citation Format: Hsieh C-M, Yang N-C, Yang A-K, Tseng C. Exercise and nutrition intervention on breast cancer survivors in Taiwan with BMI 25 or more to decrease BMI and maintain at an appropriate level -A preliminary report [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2018 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2018 Dec 4-8; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2019;79(4 Suppl):Abstract nr P1-12-17.