A new study appearing online in the June 9, 2014 issue of Cancer shows that many women diagnosed with breast cancer are failing to meet national guidelines for weekly exercise, especially black women. The study was authored by Brionna Hair, PhD, of the Department of Epidemiology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and others. Our results suggest that physical activity should be included as part of breast cancer care,” Dr. Brionna said in an interview with Medscape Medical News. We hope our study will encourage health care providers to talk to patients about the benefits of physical activity, which not only prolongs patient survival but also improves quality of life. According to the researchers, exercise improves survival, reduces morbidity and improves quality of life for patients with breast cancer. National guidelines recommend that patients get 150 minutes of moderate intensity exercise or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise per week. The study subjects were part of the subjects in the former Lorena Breast Cancer Study, a total of 1,735 patients. Hair and her colleagues evaluated self-rated physical activity levels before and after diagnosis in patients aged 20-74 years. Only 35 of the patients exercised at the guideline recommended level after diagnosis, and 59 patients exercised less. Vanessa Sheppard, associate professor at Georgetown University Cancer Center in Wharton, said in an interview with Medscape Medical News, “The data from this study show that. Although physical activity after a breast cancer diagnosis is important, the majority of EXAMPLE survivors did not meet guideline-pushed standards for physical activity levels. The reasons for this may be related to a lack of awareness of the benefits of exercise, physical limitations due to treatment, and the lack of safe and inexpensive exercise venues,” Dr. Sheppard explained. Dr. Sheppard explained, “We need to better understand why these patients are not physically active and to find and validate ways to maximize physical activity levels for these patients. She noted that the results of the study on black patients are of interest. Increasing awareness of the importance of physical activity for breast cancer survivors is critical, especially for high-risk groups such as black and low-income patients. From a clinical standpoint, clinicians can encourage and help breast cancer survivors to build awareness of exercise and increase awareness of locally available resources, such as referring patients to survivorship programs and exercise physiologists with a background in cancer rehabilitation,” according to Dr. Sheppard. In many cases. It is also important to encourage patients to take some simple walks. Striving to take 1,000 steps a day is a low-cost but encouraging goal.”