Seeking breast-cancer patients for yoga study

Center News

Center News File Photo Instructor Laura Yon-Brooks will lead study participants through a weekly series of free therapeutic yoga classes.

Recruitment is now under way for 60 local women, ages 21 to 75, to participate in an innovative approach for the treatment of cancer-related fatigue and weight gain.

The "Effect of Yoga on Weight, Quality of Life and Fatigue in Breast Cancer Patients Study" (Yoga Study), led by Dr. Anne McTiernan, needs overweight breast-cancer patients who do not have a prior history of practicing yoga. The women must live in the Seattle area and be willing to travel to the Center for one supervised instructor-led yoga session per week over a six-month period. They also must practice on their own an additional four days per week, for a total of five yoga sessions per week.

Additional eligibility requirements:

• The women must have a body-mass index of 25 to 35 (23 or greater for Asians or Asian Americans).



• They must be three months to two years post-treatment for stage I-IIIa breast cancer.



• There must be no history of heart attack or stroke in the last six months and no diabetes.

Those who qualify must be willing to be randomly assigned to one of the following groups:

• Immediate yoga intervention: These women will begin the yoga intervention upon enrollment in the study.



• Delayed yoga intervention: These women will start the yoga intervention after a delay of six months.

The National Cancer Institute is funding the Public Health Sciences Division study. For more information, call the Yoga Study information line at (206) 667-6818 or e-mail yogastudy@fhcrc.org.

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