Adherence to the American Cancer Society guidelines on nutrition and physical activity for cancer survivors and biomarkers of inflammation among breast cancer survivors

OBJECTIVES: This study investigated whether adherence to the overall lifestyle recommendations in the American Cancer Society (ACS) guidelines on nutrition and physical activity for cancer survivors was associated with inflammation in breast cancer survivors. METHODS: The study included 409 women who had undergone breast cancer surgery at least 1 year before enrollment. A generalized linear model was used to estimate the least square means and 95% confidence intervals of plasma levels of inflammatory markers according to lifestyle factors defined in terms of adherence to the ACS guidelines. RESULTS: Higher overall adherence scores were associated with lower levels of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) (p for trend = 0.015) and higher levels of adiponectin (p for trend = 0.009). Similar significant associations of hs-CRP (p for trend = 0.004) and adiponectin (p for trend = 0.010) levels were observed with the score for the body mass index (BMI) component of the adherence score. A higher diet component score was associated with a higher adiponectin level (p for trend = 0.020), but there was no significant association for the physical activity component score. CONCLUSIONS: The present study’s findings suggest that maintaining a healthy lifestyle according to the ACS guidelines was associated with beneficial effects on inflammatory marker levels, especially hs-CRP and adiponectin, among breast cancer survivors. Among the 3 components of lifestyle guidelines, the BMI component exhibited the most similar tendency to the overall adherence score in relation to inflammatory indicators. Further prospective and intervention studies are needed to investigate longitudinal associations between lifestyle factors and inflammatory markers among breast cancer survivors.