NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - In a recent study, women getting over breast cancer treatment who participated in an 8-week supervised aerobic and strength training program improved their physical fitness and quality of life. Now, a follow up study of the women indicates that some of the physical fitness gains last well beyond the training period.

This is an important finding, the researchers say, given that it is unrealistic to assume that women will continue with an exercise regimen similar to a supervised training program when they're on their own.

In the original 8-week study, Dr. Alejandro Lucia, of the Universidad Europea de Madrid, Spain and colleagues randomly assigned 16 breast cancer survivors to an aerobic and resistance training group or a 'control' group. The training group participated in three 90-minute sessions per week.

By the end of the study period, women in the exercise group, compared to the control group, showed improvements in quality of life, cardiorespiratory fitness, strength and muscle function, according to a report in the International Journal of Sports Medicine.

Lucia and colleagues then assessed the effects of 8 weeks of "detraining" on the gains made by 11 women in the original training group.

"We observed that most of the significant benefits induced by training (particularly, improved quality of life and muscle strength) were retained after a subsequent 8-week period with no training," Lucia told Reuters Health.

Gains in cardiorespiratory fitness, however, were rapidly lost during the relatively short detraining period, the investigators report.

"Our results uniquely demonstrate the efficacy of even a brief period of formal exercise programming in developing and retaining training induced benefits during a short period of training cessation," Lucia and colleagues write.