(Jill Barker/ Healthing) — While the survival rate of breast cancer has been on the rise since 1987, it’s still the most frequently diagnosed cancer among Canadian women and ranks second in cancer-related deaths of women.
But with 88 per cent of Canadian women now living at least five years after diagnosis, an increasing amount of focus is put on survivorship and better managing the physical and mental challenges associated with cancer treatments — some of which can linger for years.
One of the goals of cancer patients and survivors is to maintain their quality of life amid the stress the disease places on day-to-day living. Yet an often underrated contributor to enhancing the physical and mental health of breast cancer patients is exercise, which has been proven not just to improve quality of life, but to significantly reduce the risk of disease reoccurrence and mortality. (…)