Breast cancer: Less sitting, more physical activity may lower risk

• Researchers analyzed the link between breast cancer and physical activity as well as time spent sitting.
• They found that higher levels of physical activity and less sedentary time reduce breast cancer risk.
• They concluded that a greater focus on promoting active lifestyles would likely reduce breast cancer risk.

Physical activity and less sedentary time have been linked to a lower risk for breast cancer in observational studies.

While researchTrusted Source suggests a generally consistent link between breast cancer risk and physical activity, the linkTrusted Source between sedentary time and breast cancer risk is less clear and less well-studied.

Most studies investigating the link between breast cancer and physical activity or sedentary time have been observational in nature. This means that rather than providing a causal link, they provide a correlation that may be subject to biases.

Recently, researchers analyzed healthcare data from 76 studies to determine whether there is a causal link between activity levels and breast cancer.

They found that greater levels of physical activity and less sedentary time likely reduce breast cancer risk.

“The findings of this new study lend further support for current recommendations to be physically active for health, including lowering breast cancer risk,” said Dr. I-Min Lee, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, who was not involved in the study, in conversation with Medical News Today.

“Even modest increases in physical activity at the population level will decrease the number of new breast cancer diagnoses made each year,” Dr. Brigid Lynch, deputy head of the Cancer Epidemiology Division at Cancer Council Victoria, Australia, one of the study’s authors, told MNT.

The study was published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.