Personal Story: Running marathons with metastatic breast cancer? Yes!

Contents

ARTICLE AT A GLANCE

This article is about:

The personal story of a metastatic breast cancer patient and how running marathons has improved her quality of life.

Sarah’s story

Since 2012 Sarah has run over 40 marathons (26.2 miles) and ultramarathons (any race longer than 26.2 miles). However, her ability to continue long-distance running came into question this July when she was diagnosed with metastic breast cancer. 

Sarah asked her oncologist if she could still run long distances. Because her breast cancer had spread to her bones, Sarah was worried that extreme running might put her at risk for a fracture.  Even in healthy long distance runners, stress fractures are not uncommon. Sarah’s oncologist reassured her that running can strengthen her bones. Her oncologist encouraged her to continue participating in the sport that made her happy, but advised her to listen to her body.

Benefits of exercise for breast cancer patients

Over 100 exercise intervention trials have shown that physical activity for women with early-stage breast cancer helps manage cancer-related symptoms, improves quality of life and can even lower the risk of recurrence and breast cancer related death. These studies have shown that exercise is safe and can provide health benefits to these patients both during and after treatment. 

Yet, less is known about whether exercise is safe or beneficial for women with advanced breast cancer. In fact, they are often excluded from exercise intervention studies.

What do we know about exercise for metastatic breast cancer patients?

One small study from September 2019 looked at the benefits of exercise in 14 women with metastatic breast cancer.

Researchers randomized the women to either a control group or an exercise group. The exercise group followed an 8-week home-based physical activity program, which included twice-weekly supervised resistance training and unsupervised walking.

When the exercise group was compared to the control group, the exercise group had less chronic fatigue, better ability to use oxygen, and performed better on a six-minute walk test.

An earlier study from April 2016 randomized 101 women with metastatic breast cancer to a 16-week moderate exercise intervention or a control group. About 40 percent of participants were undergoing chemotherapy at the time of enrollment. 

This earlier study found that participants in the exercise group increased (although not significantly) their minutes of weekly exercise and improved their treadmill test scores and physical function (as measured by a survey designed to access an individual’s ability to complete daily living activities and more strenuous tasks).

Although both of these studies were small, they suggest that an exercise program for women with metastatic breast cancer may safely lead to better physical capacity and help them to live well with their disease. Much more work is needed to determine if an exercise intervention could help women with advanced disease live more fully with fewer symptoms from their disease and treatment.

Sarah’s latest marathon

Last September, Sarah ran the Columbus Marathon. She and her husband wore shirts with “Living with Metastatic Breast Cancer,” on the front, and the phrase “Bound and Determined” on the back. A few days before she was feeling extreme fatigue. The morning of the race while waiting at the start line, she felt terrible until the song “Thunderstruck” by ACDC came on. It was then that she realized how much joy running brought to her life. Running had helped her deal with both the emotional and physical impact of her advanced disease.

Sarah is now more determined than ever to keep running.  She’s encouraging people to stay active no matter what circumstances life throws at them. She wants to let metastatic breast cancer patients know that they should keep doing the things they love, whether it’s a 5K or 100 mile race.  As Sarah said, “Just put a smile on your face and enjoy the heck out of it.”

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posted 10/13/19
 

References

Smith, S as told to Shiffer, E. “I Have Metastatic Breast Cancer—but I Won’t Stop Running Ultras”.  Runner’s World. Dec 19, 2018

Yee J, Davis GM, Hackett D, PhD, et al. “Physical Activity for Symptom Management in Women With Metastatic Breast Cancer: A Randomized Feasibility Trial on Physical Activity and Breast Metastases." Journal of Pain and Symptom Management. 2019 Jul 30. pii: S0885-3924(19)30435-X. doi: 10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2019.07.022. [Epub ahead of print]

Ligibel JA, Giobbie-Hurder A, Shockro L, Campbell N, Partridge AH, Tolaney SM, Lin NU, Winer EP. Randomized trial of a physical activity intervention in women with metastatic breast cancer. Cancer. 2016. 122(8):1169-77.

Disclosure

FORCE receives funding from industry sponsors, including companies that manufacture cancer drugs, tests and devices. All XRAYS articles are written independently of any sponsor and are reviewed by members of our Scientific Advisory Board prior to publication to assure scientific integrity.