Changes Of CEA and CA15-3 Biomarkers in the Breast Cancer Patients following eight Weeks of Aerobic Exercise

Physical activity has beneficial effects on the elderly susceptible to the development of cancers, through maintaining a healthy body condition and improving the state of disease. In the present study, we investigated the variation of cancer-related biomarkers, such as Carcinoembryonic Antigen (CEA) and Cancer Antigen 15-3 (CA 15-3) following eight weeks of aerobic exercise in middle-aged women with breast cancer.
In this quasi-experimental study, 15 females with breast cancer with mean age (44.46±17.15 years of age), weight (70.53±5.18 kg) and body mass index (27.58±2.18 kg/m2) were selected and considered as the experimental group. The exercise program consisted of 8 weeks of aerobic exercise; three sessions per week for 40-60 minutes and with an intensity of 30%-60% heart rate reserve (HRR). Before and after the experiment, while all patients were fasting for 12 hours and did not have any vigorous physical activity for 24 hours, the level of CEA and CA15-3 was measured. Data were analyzed by paired sample t-test at a significance level of PFindings showed that the tumor markers (CEA and CA15-3) levels did not change significantly after 8 weeks of aerobic exercise (P=0.542 and P=0.091); while there was a significant decrease (p=0/001) in body mass index, body fat percentage and weight in middle-aged women with breast cancerý.
We suggest that exercise for 3 days per week improves body composition indices, without increasing the level of fatigue or stress values, which may contribute to prevent cancer prevalence in elderly women.