Chemotherapy for breast cancer patients can lead to emotional as well as physical changes. But there is a way to fight back.

Women undergoing treatment for breast cancer often report feelings of depression, anxiety and fatigue. But there are other equally serious changes -- physical ones -- associated with chemotherapy. Until now, most therapists have assumed that weight gain among chemotherapy patients was the result of increased eating, but recent studies at Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center show that breast cancer patients don't eat any more than they did before chemo. The problem, say the researchers, is that the patients are getting less exercise. Associate research professor Wendy Demark says chemotherapy does cause changes in body composition -- and the only cure is exercise.

"We know that if women don't exercise, what they could expect is that they will age six years in six months, [in terms of] their body composition. Within a year they age 10 years over the course of that year. The only thing that we know to keep their body composition in check is to exercise."

Demark says it may sound cruel to expect a woman undergoing chemotherapy to force herself to exercise, but she says patients who do work out report increased energy levels. I'm Tom Britt.

Demark says exercise should be considered a vital part of breast cancer therapy.

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"It may seem like it's harsh and that sort of thing, but women say that after they exercise they actually have more energy. They actually feel better. So therefore although we see it as a sentence -- a harsh sentence -- it really should be seen as a road to health - buthard."