Takudzwa "Titch" Madzima, assistant professor of exercise science, has co-authored an article published in the European Journal of Cancer Care investigating 12- to 15-month body composition and bone mineral density in breast cancer survivors compared to age-matched women without a prior cancer diagnosis.
Assistant Professor of Exercise Science Takudzwa “Titch” Madzima has co-authored an article in the European Journal of Cancer Care demonstrating that breast cancer survivors may experience accelerated losses of bone mineral density at the hip in a follow-up study.
Breast cancer is the most common cancer in American women, and although treatments for breast cancer have steadily decreased mortality rates, they do leave breast cancer survivors to struggle with several side effects of treatment.
These include accelerated age-related decreases in lean mass (muscle mass) and bone mineral density, with the concurrent increase in fat mass. The accelerated decreases in bone mineral density can also increase the risk of fractures in breast cancer survivors. This study assessed body composition and bone mineral density changes in breast cancer survivors and age-matched post-menopausal women without a prior cancer diagnosis over a 12- to 15-month period via dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry.
The study found that breast cancer survivors and the age-matched women both experienced significant decreases in bone density and lean to fat mass ratio as well as increases in fat mass. However, the breast cancer survivors did have a significantly greater decrease in bone density at the left hip, possibly as a result of lower physical activity levels in the breast cancer survivors compared to the age-matched women.
These findings demonstrate that the age-related changes in body composition can occur over a relatively short amount of time, and breast cancer survivors may be more susceptible to the losses in bone density. Therefore, the findings from this study and others support the need for interventions to prevent the cancer treatment-related changes in body composition and bone mineral density.
To address this, Madzima is currently conducting a study investigating the effects of different resistance training intensities on affective responses (e.g. feelings of pleasure and displeasure) and biomarkers of stress and inflammation with the goal of designing a long-term intervention for cancer survivors.
The article titled “Body composition and bone mineral density in breast cancer survivors and non-cancer controls: A 12- to 15-month follow-up” was published in the European Journal of Cancer Care with Ashley Artese from Roanoke College, Emily Simonavice from Georgia College & State University and Lynn Panton, Jeong-su Kim, Jasminka Ilich and Bahram Arjmandi from Florida State University.