Regular exercise in teenage and young adulthood may help cut a women's risk of developing premenopaausal breast cancer, according to a report Wednesday in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

    The study finds that women who were physically active as teens and young adults are 23 percent ... ...likely to develop breast cancer than those who grew up sedentary.

    "This really points to the benefit of sustained physical activity from adolescence through the adult years, to get the maximum benefit," said Graham Colditz of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, the study's lead author.

    Middle-aged women have long been advised to get active to lower their risk of breast cancer after menopause.

    Researchers tracked nearly 65,000 nurses ages 24 to 42 who enrolled in a major health study. They answered detailed questionnaires about their physical activity dating back to age 12.

    Within six years of enrolling, 550 were diagnosed with breast cancer before menopause. A quarter of all breast cancer is diagnosed at these younger ages, when it's typically more aggressive.

    The biggest impact was regular exercise from ages 12 to 22.

    And while the study examined only premenopausal breast cancer, "it's certainly likely and possible" that the protection from youthful exercise will last long enough to affect more common postmenopausal breast cancer, too, Colditz added.

    There are many breast cancer risks a woman can't change: how early she starts menstruating, how late menopause hits, family history of the disease, he added.

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