New Breast Cancer Study Announced

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The Dana Farber Cancer Institute and the wearable-tech giant Fitbit are teaming up on a study to learn if weight loss can reduce the risk of breast cancer recurrence in women who are overweight. Dubbed the Breast Cancer Weight Loss (BWEL) study, the effort is cosponsored by the National Cancer Institute and the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology. It will begin enrolling an anticipated 3,200 participants immediately and is due to launch in August 2016.

The link between breast cancer and excess body weight is well known. Obesity is a risk factor in the development of breast cancer, and evidence suggests that women who develop breast cancer who are also overweight have a poorer prognosis than women whose weight falls in the normal range. However, no studies to date have looked at whether weight loss influences breast cancer recurrence or long-term survival rates. The BWEL study is the first of its kind.

The researchers will track women in the United States and Canada with early-stage breast cancer who are either overweight or obese for a period of six years. Half of the women will be randomized to a control group that receives health counseling about breast cancer but no specific interventions that target weight loss. The other half will be assigned to a personal health coach who will work with them over the telephone to develop strategies to increase their activity, cut calories and lose weight.

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Women in the weight-loss group will also receive an array of products from Fitbit, including the Fitbit Charge HR, which tracks activity levels and heart rate 24 hours a day, and an Aria Wifi Smart scale, which tracks weight, body mass index, lean mass and body fat percentage, and communicates the data wirelessly to the Fitbit mobile or online dashboard. They will also have access to FitStar, Fitbit software that provides personalized exercise videos on mobile devices.

Data from the Fitbit Charge HR and the Aria scale will be transmitted remotely to each participant’s health coach, who will follow her progress and share timely motivational tips to help her stay on track. 

The Fitbit Charge HR shows tracked data on a mobile device.
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The study is set to reach its first benchmark in two years, at which point the researchers hope to have enough data to determine if the weight loss interventions are working and how they are impacting recurrence rates. According to lead investigator Jennifer Ligibel, M.D., an oncologist at the Susan F. Smith Center for Women’s Cancer at Dana Farber, “If this study shows that losing weight through increasing physical activity and reducing calories improves survival rates in breast cancer, this could lead to weight loss and physical activity becoming a standard part of the treatment for millions of breast cancer patients around the world.”