WISER Survivor Trial: Combined Effect of Exercise and Weight Loss Interventions on Inflammation in Breast Cancer Survivors.

PURPOSE: Physical inactivity and obesity increase risk for breast cancer recurrence and cardiovascular death; inflammation is hypothesized to mediate these associations. METHODS: In a four-arm randomized controlled trial, 318 breast cancer survivors with overweight or obesity were randomized to exercise alone, weight loss alone, exercise plus weight loss, or control for 12 months. Inflammation outcomes included C-reactive protein (CRP), serum amyloid A (SAA), intracellular adhesion molecule 1 (ICAM-1), and vascular cell adhesion molecule 1 (VCAM-1). RESULTS: Compared with control, exercise alone increased ICAM-1 (9.3%; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.6-16.9) and VCAM-1 (8.6%; 95% CI = 2.6-14.5) but did not change CRP or SAA. Compared with control, weight loss alone reduced CRP (-35.2%; 95% CI = -49.9 to -20.7), and SAA (-25.6%; 95% CI = -39.8 to -11.9) but did not change ICAM-1 or VCAM-1. Compared with control, exercise plus weight loss reduced CRP (-44.1%; 95% CI = -57.1 to -31.1) and SAA (-26.6%; 95% CI = -40.5 to -12.6) but did not change ICAM-1 or VCAM-1. Among 194 participants with elevated CRP at baseline (e.g., >3 mg·L -1 ), compared with control, weight loss alone (0.17; 95% CI = 0.04-0.30) and exercise plus weight loss (0.31; 95% CI = 0.16-0.46) increased the probability of achieving normal CRP at month 12. In analyses that consolidated randomized groups, body weight and adiposity reductions, but not change in fitness level, correlated with decreased CRP, SAA, and ICAM-1 levels. CONCLUSIONS: In breast cancer survivors with overweight or obesity, weight loss or exercise plus weight loss reduced measures of inflammation that are associated with breast cancer recurrence and cardiovascular death.

Effects of moderate aerobic exercise training on vascular health and blood pressure in African Americans.

As healthcare progresses toward individualized medicine, understanding how different racial groups respond to lifestyle interventions is valuable. It is established that African Americans have disproportionate levels of cardiovascular disease and impaired vascular health, and clinical practice guidelines suggest lifestyle interventions as the first line of treatment. Recently, the authors reported that 6 months of aerobic exercise improved inflammatory markers, flow-mediated dilation (FMD), and levels of circulating endothelial microparticles (EMPs) in African American adults. This study is a subgroup analysis of the aerobic exercise-induced changes in vascular health and blood pressure (BP) measures, including carotid artery intima-media thickness (IMT), nitroglycerin-mediated dilation (NMD), ambulatory BP, and office BP. Sedentary African American adults (53.4±6.2 years; 21 women and 5 men) showed improved vascular health but no change in BP. Carotid artery IMT decreased 6.4%, plasma nitric oxide levels increased 76.6%, plasma EMP levels decreased, percentage of FMD increased 59.6%, and FMD/NMD ratio increased 36.2% (P<.05 for all). Six months of aerobic exercise training is sufficient to elicit improvements in vascular structure and function in African Americans, even without improvements in BP measures or NMD (ie, smooth muscle function). To our knowledge, this is the first study to report such findings in African Americans.