Weight Training Helps Breast Cancer Survivors

A new study says that breast cancer survivors who engage in a progressive, supervised weight training program fare better than their counterparts who do not lift weights.

Occupational therapist Cathy Kleinman-Barnett works with breast cancer patients, but she has never encouraged women with lymphedema, a breast cancer-related swelling of the arm, to lift weights. A new study contradicts recommendations that breast cancer survivors avoid weight lifting, because of swelling.

However, she may be changing her tune, thanks to a new study in the August 13 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. It turns out that breast cancer survivors with lymphedema who engage in a progressive, supervised weight-lifting program fare better than their counterparts who do not lift weights. Read more