Weight Lifting in Women with Breast-Cancer-Related Lymphedema

From the NEJM this week: An interesting randomized trial looking at lymphedema after breast cancer treatment, and challenging some of the paradigms of prevention.

Weight Lifting in Women with Breast-Cancer-Related Lymphedema: "Weight lifting has generally been discouraged for women with breast-cancer-related lymphedema because of concern that it might worsen the lymphedema. In this randomized trial involving breast-cancer survivors with lymphedema, women undergoing a 1-year weight-lifting program were no more likely than controls to have increased arm swelling, had greater improvement in the severity of lymphedema symptoms and strength, and had a lower incidence of confirmed exacerbations of lymphedema."