Delivery of a virtually supervised exercise intervention for Hispanic and Latina breast cancer survivors: Lessons learned from the ROSA trial

Breast cancer survivors experience many treatment-related side effects, including the development of metabolic syndrome (MetS) which is associated with poor prognosis and higher risk of mortality.We previously reported that a 16-week aerobic and resistance exercise intervention significantly improved MetS among sedentary, overweight/obese breast cancer survivors.We sought to determine whether improvements in MetS were maintained 5-years post-intervention among sedentary, overweight/obese breast cancer survivors.We conducted a 5-year follow-up study after the completion of a 16week, two-armed randomized controlled trial comparing a combined supervised aerobic and resistance exercise program to a usual care group.The sample included 84 sedentary breast cancer survivors that were overweight or obese (Body mass index 25.0 kg/m ).No intervention was conducted during the follow-up period.Waist circumference, blood pressure, and fasting blood samples were obtained 5 years following the post-intervention timepoint.MetS z-score was calculated by assessing waist circumference, blood pressure, fasting levels of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), triglycerides, and glucose.Participants with follow-up data (N=84) were aged 58.9 10.2 years old, were mostly obese (52%), and 70% were ethnic minorities.The change in MetS z-score from post-intervention to follow-up was significantly lower among the exercise group compared to the usual care group (mean difference -2.4; 95% CI, -4.7 to -0.5; p=0.001).The attenuated increase of MetS zscore in the exercise group compared to the usual care group suggests that exercise might have a beneficial long-term effect on MetS.Therefore, an exercise intervention may be able to attenuate the increased risk of MetS in breast cancer survivors over a 5-year follow-up period.