Mind the Gap—Health Benefits of Exercise in Women With or at Risk for Diabetes
Sunday, June 23, at 4:30 p.m. ET
Room W307
Orange County Convention Center
(Livestream Available)
Exercise for the Prevention/Management of Type 2 Diabetes in Breast Cancer Survivors
Sam Orange, PhD
Senior Lecturer in Clinical Exercise Physiology,
Newcastle University
What is your presentation about?
Women who have been treated for primary breast cancer have an increased risk of type 2 diabetes, particularly those who receive hormone therapy. Exercise can reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes, but there are several barriers to exercise for breast cancer survivors at both the organizational and individual levels. This talk will present what we know about the challenges of embedding exercise into breast cancer care and how we might address them.
How do you hope your presentation will impact diabetes research or care?
The health benefits of exercise for breast cancer survivors are reasonably well established, but exercise is not standard care in oncology. I hope this presentation raises awareness of why this is the case. I also hope it provides a potential model for making exercise referrals standard care in UK breast cancer care.
How did you become involved with this area of diabetes research or care?
In 2018, I joined Northumbria University, United Kingdom, as a postdoctoral researcher in exercise and cancer survivorship. In 2020, I joined Newcastle University, where I now lead a program of research focused on developing and testing physical activity interventions for people at higher risk of, or diagnosed with, cancer. I am particularly interested in supporting women with breast cancer to be physically active; I am the Principal Investigator on a research project funded by Breast Cancer Now, which aims to improve women’s access to physical activity support after breast cancer treatment.