Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Recreational physical activity and risk of postmenopausal breast cancer in a large cohort of US women

  • Published:
Cancer Causes & Control Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Due to its potential effects on ovarian hormone production, physical activity has been proposed as a modifiable risk factor for breast cancer. The authors analyzed data from the American Cancer Society Cancer Prevention Study II (CPS-II) Nutrition Cohort to examine the association between various measures of physical activity and postmenopausal breast cancer risk. Information on physical activity was obtained in 1992 via a self-administered questionnaire for 72,608 postmenopausal female participants who were cancer-free. During the five year prospective follow-up, 1520 incident breast cancer cases were identified among these women. Cox proportional hazards modeling was used to compute hazard rate ratios (RR) and to adjust for potential confounding factors including mammography. Women who were most physically active (>42.0 MET-h/week) at baseline had 29% lower incidence rates than active women with the least activity (>0–7.0 MET-h/week) (95% CI, 0.49–1.02). The difference in risk was largest for localized breast cancer, and for women who did not use hormone replacement therapy (HRT) at enrollment. Our findings are consistent with other studies that show lower risk of postmenopausal breast cancer associated with regular physical activity.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Henderson B, Ross R, Bernstein L (1988) Estrogens as a cause of human cancer: the Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Foundation award lecture. Cancer Res 48: 246-253.

    Google Scholar 

  2. Trichopoulos D, MacMahon B, Cole P (1972) Menopause and breast cancer risk. J Nat Cancer Inst 48: 605-613.

    Google Scholar 

  3. Brinton L, Schairer C, Hoover R, et al. (1988) Menstrual factors and risk of breast cancer. Cancer Invest 6: 245-254.

    Google Scholar 

  4. Hsieh C, Lambe P, Lan S, et al. (1994) Dual effect of parity on breast cancer risk. Eur J Cancer 7: 969-973.

    Google Scholar 

  5. Sonnenschein E, Toniolo P, Terry M, et al. (1999) Body fat distribution and obesity in pre-and postmenopausal breast cancer. Int J Epidemiol 28: 1026-1031.

    Google Scholar 

  6. vandenBrandt P, Spiegelman D, Yaun S, et al. (2000) Pooled analysis of prospective cohort studies on height, weight, and breast cancer risk. Am J Epidemiol 152: 514-527.

    Google Scholar 

  7. Collaborative Group on Hormonal Factors in Breast Cancer.(1997) Breast cancer and hormone replacement therapy: combined reanalysis of data from 51 epidemiological studies involving 52,705 women with breast cancer and 108,411 women without breast cancer. Lancet 350: 1047-1059.

    Google Scholar 

  8. Newcomb P, Titus-Ernstoff L, Egan K, et al. (2002) Postmenopausal estrogen and progestin use in relation to breast cancer risk. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 11: 593-600.

    Google Scholar 

  9. Vainio H, Bianchini F, eds. (2002) IARC Handbooks on Cancer Prevention: Weight Control and Physical Activity. Lyon: IARC Press.

    Google Scholar 

  10. Cerhan J, Chiu B, Wallace R, et al. (1998) Physical activity, physical function, and the risk of breast cancer in a prospective study among elderly women. J Gerontol 53A: M251-M256.

    Google Scholar 

  11. Luoto R, Latikka P, Pukkala E, Hakulinen T, Vikho V (2000) The effect of physical activity on breast cancer risk: a cohort study of 30,548 women. Eur J Epidemiol 16(10): 973-980.

    Google Scholar 

  12. Breslow R, Ballard-Barbash R, Munoz K, Graubard B (2001) Long-term recreational physical activity and breast cancer in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey I Epidemiologic Follow-up Study. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 10: 805-808.

    Google Scholar 

  13. Lee I, Rexrode K, Cook N, Hennekens C, Buring J (2001) Physical activity and breast cancer risk: the Women's Health Study (United States). Cancer Causes Control 12: 137-145.

    Google Scholar 

  14. Lee I, Cook N, Rexrode K, Buring J (2001) Lifetime physical activity and risk of breast cancer. Brit J Cancer 85(7): 962-965.

    Google Scholar 

  15. Dirx M, Voorrips L, Goldbohm R, vandenBrant P (2001) Baseline recreational physical activity, history of sports participation, and postmenopausal breast carcinoma risk in the Netherlands Cohort Study. Cancer 92: 1638-1649.

    Google Scholar 

  16. Moradi T, Adami H, Ekbom A, et al. (2002) Physical activity and risk for breast cancer: a prospective cohort study among Swedish twins. Int J Cancer 100: 76-81.

    Google Scholar 

  17. Matthews C, Shu X, Jin F, et al. (2001) Lifetime physical activity and breast cancer risk in the Shanghai Breast Cancer Study. Brit J Cancer 84(7): 994-1001.

    Google Scholar 

  18. Gilliland F, Li Y, Baumgartner K, Crumley D, Samet J (2001) Physical activity and breast cancer risk in Hispanic and non-Hispanic white women. Am J Epidemiol 154(5): 442-450.

    Google Scholar 

  19. Thune I, Brenn T, Lund E, Gaard M (1997) Physical activity and the risk of breast cancer. New Engl J Med 336(18): 1269-1275.

    Google Scholar 

  20. Sesso H, Paffenbarger R, Lee I (1998) Physical activity and breast cancer risk in the College Alumni Health Study (United States). Cancer Causes Control 9: 433-439.

    Google Scholar 

  21. Rockhill B, Willett W, Hunter D, Manson J, Hankinson S, Colditz G (1999) A prospective study of recreational physical activity and breast cancer risk. Arch Int Med 159: 2290-2296.

    Google Scholar 

  22. Moore D, Folsom A, Mink P, Hong C, Anderson K, Kushi L (2000) Physical activity and incidence of postmenopausal breast cancer. Epidemiology 11: 292-296.

    Google Scholar 

  23. Moradi T, Nyren O, Zack M, Magnusson C, Persson I, Adami H (2000) Breast cancer risk and lifetime leisure-time and occupational physical activity (Sweden). Cancer Causes Control 11: 523-531.

    Google Scholar 

  24. Friedenreich C, Courneya K, Bryant H (2001) Influence of physical activity in different age and life periods on the risk of breast cancer. Epidemiology 12: 604-612.

    Google Scholar 

  25. Evenson K, Rosamond W, Cai J, Diez-Roux A, Brancati F (2002) Influence of retirement on leisure-time physical activity: the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study. Am J Epidemiol 155: 692-699.

    Google Scholar 

  26. Calle E, Rodriguez C, Jacobs E, et al. (2002) The American Cancer Society Cancer Prevention Study II Nutrition Cohort-rational, study design, and baseline characteristics. Cancer 94: 500-511.

    Google Scholar 

  27. World Health Organization (1977) International classification of diseases ninth revision. In: Manual of the international statistical classification of disease, injuries, and cases of death, 9th rev. edn. Geneva: WHO.

    Google Scholar 

  28. Bergmann M, Calle E, Mervis C, Miracle-McMahill H, Thun M, Heath C (1998) Validity of self-reported cancers in a prospective cohort study in comparison to data from state cancer registries. Am J Epidemiol 147: 556-562.

    Google Scholar 

  29. Ainsworth B, Haskell W, Leon A, et al. (1993) Compendium of physical activities: classification of energy costs of human physical activities. Med Sci Sports Med 25: 71-80.

    Google Scholar 

  30. Cox D (1972) Regression models and life tables. J Roy Statis Soc 34: 187-220.

    Google Scholar 

  31. Kleinbaum G, Kupper L, Morgenstern H (1982) Epidemiologic Research: principles and Quantitative Methods. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Co.

    Google Scholar 

  32. Mayer-Oakes S, Atchison K, Matthias R, DeJong F, Lubben J, Schweitzer S (1996) Mammography use in older women with regular physicians: what are the predictors? Am J Prev Med 12: 44-50.

    Google Scholar 

  33. Gammon M, Schoenberg J, Britton J, et al. (1998) Recreational physical activity and breast cancer risk among women under age 45. Am J Epidemiol 147(3): 273-280.

    Google Scholar 

  34. Chen C, White E, Malone K, Daling J (1997) Leisure-time physical activity in relation to breast cancer among young women (Washington, United States). Cancer Causes Control 8: 77-84.

    Google Scholar 

  35. Marcus P, Newman B, Moorman P, et al. (1999) Physical activity at age 12 and adult breast cancer risk (United States). Cancer Causes Control 10: 293-302.

    Google Scholar 

  36. Shoff S, Newcomb P, Trentham-Dietz A, et al. (2000) Early-life physical activity and postmenopausal breast cancer: effect of body size and weight change. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 9: 591-595.

    Google Scholar 

  37. Verloop J, Rookus M, Kooy KVD, Leeuwen FV (2000) Physical activity and breast cancer risk in women aged 20-54 years. J Natl Cancer Inst 92(2): 128-135.

    Google Scholar 

  38. D'Avanzo B, Nanni O, LaVecchia C, et al. (1996) Physical activity and breast cancer risk. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 5: 155-160.

    Google Scholar 

  39. Levi F, Pasche C, Lucchini F, LaVecchia C (1999) Occupational and leisure time physical activity and the risk of breast cancer. Eur J Cancer 35(5): 775-778.

    Google Scholar 

  40. Calle E, Murphy T, Rodriguez C, Thun M, Heath C (1998) Occupation and breast cancer mortality in a prospective cohort of US women. Am J Epidemiol 148(2): 191-197.

    Google Scholar 

  41. Nestler J, Powers L, Matt D, et al. (1991) A direct effect of hyperinsulinemia on serum sex hormone-binding globulin levels in obese women with the polycystic ovary syndrome. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 72: 83-89.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Epidemiology and Surveillance Research, American Cancer Society, National Home Office, 1599 Clifton Road NE, Atlanta, GA, 30329-4251, USA

    Alpa V. Patel, Eugenia E. Calle & Michael J. Thun

  2. Department of Preventive Medicine, University of Southern California School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Alpa V. Patel, Leslie Bernstein & Anna H. Wu

Authors
  1. Alpa V. Patel
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Eugenia E. Calle
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Leslie Bernstein
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Anna H. Wu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Michael J. Thun
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Alpa V. Patel.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Patel, A.V., Calle, E.E., Bernstein, L. et al. Recreational physical activity and risk of postmenopausal breast cancer in a large cohort of US women. Cancer Causes Control 14, 519–529 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1024895613663

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1024895613663

Search

Navigation