Zan Gao, PhD, Director of Physical Activity Epidemiology Laboratory (PAEL), recently published a research article titled “Leveraging fitness tracker and personalized exercise prescription intervention on breast cancer survivors’ biomarkers and physical fitness: A pilot trial” as the corresponding author in Journal of Clinical Medicine.

This feasibility study investigated whether a year-long combined wristband-based and personalized exercise prescription intervention would improve breast cancer survivors’ health outcomes. In this study, Gao collaborated with his colleagues from Guangdong General Hospital, in China. Ninety-five breast cancer survivors were recruited from the Southern region of China and were delivered the exercise intervention across 12 months, using a single-group pretest-posttest design. Participants’ lipid profile (e.g., total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein, low-density lipoprotein, and triglycerides), blood glucose, breast cancer biomarkers (e.g., carcinoembryonic antigen and cancer antigen 15-3), and functional fitness (e.g., strength in arms and legs, endurance, balance, agility, and flexibility) were assessed at baseline and 12-month post-intervention. The results suggested that the behavioral change program might promote certain health outcomes, such as blood glucose, agility and balance, aerobic endurance, lower-body flexibility, in Chinese breast cancer survivors.