Physical Activity and Cardiac Function in Long-Term Breast Cancer Survivors: A Cross-Sectional Study

Background: Higher levels of physical activity are associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease in the general population. Whether the same holds for women who underwent treatment for breast cancer is unclear.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between physical activity in a typical week in the past 12 months and cardiac dysfunction in breast cancer survivors.

Methods: We used data from a cohort of breast cancer survivors who were treated at ages 40 to 50 years (N = 559). The association between physical activity and global longitudinal strain (GLS) and left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) was evaluated using both linear and modified Poisson regression analyses adjusted for relevant confounders.

Results: In total, 559 breast cancer survivors were included, with median age of 55.5 years and a median time since treatment of 10.2 years. GLS was less favorable in inactive survivors (-17.1%) than in moderately inactive (-18.4%), moderately active (-18.2%), and active survivors (-18.5%), with an adjusted significant difference for active versus inactive survivors (β = -1.31; 95% CI: -2.55 to -0.06)). Moderately active (n = 57/130) and active survivors (n = 87/124) had significantly lower risks of abnormal GLS (defined as >-18%) compared with inactive survivors (n = 17/26) (RR: 0.65 [95% CI: 0.45-0.94] and RR: 0.61 [95% CI: 0.43-0.87], respectively). LVEF, in normal ranges in all activity categories, was not associated with physical activity.

Conclusions: In long-term breast cancer survivors, higher physical activity levels were associated with improved GLS but not LVEF, with the relatively largest benefit for doing any activity versus none. This finding suggests that increasing physical activity may contribute to cardiovascular health benefits, especially in inactive survivors.