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Title: A Single Exercise Session May Slow Cancer Cell Growth, Study Finds

Link: https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/09/13/0...

The Washington Post notes that past research "indicates that exercise helps
some cancer survivors avoid recurrence of their disease." But a new study
"offers an explanation of how, showing that exercise changes the inner
workings of our muscles and cells, although more study is still needed..."
The study, published last month, involved 32 women who'd survived breast
cancer. After a single session of interval training or weightlifting, their
blood contained higher levels of certain molecules, and those factors helped
put the brakes on laboratory-grown breast cancer cells. "Our work shows that
exercise can directly influence cancer biology, suppressing tumor growth
through powerful molecular signals," said Robert Newton, the deputy director
of the Exercise Medicine Research Institute at Edith Cowan University in
Perth, Australia, and senior author of the new study. His group's experiment
adds to mounting evidence that exercise upends the risks of not only
developing but also surviving cancer... Scientists know contracting muscles
release a slew of hormones and biochemicals, known as myokines, into our
bloodstreams and have long suspected these myokines fight cancer. In some
past studies with mice and healthy people, blood drawn after exercise and
added to live cancer cells killed or suppressed the cancer's growth... [The
new study tested cancer cells in high-tech petri dishes with blood drawn from
cancer survivors.] Drenched in plasma from either the interval trainers or
the lifters, many cancer cells quit growing. Quite a few died. (The blood
drawn before exercise had no effects.) The cancer-fighting impacts were
greatest with the blood drawn after interval training. Why? Additional
testing showed this blood contained the highest concentrations of certain,
beneficial myokines, especially IL-6, a protein that affects immune responses
and inflammation... What these results mean, Newton said, is that "exercise
doesn't just improve fitness and well-being" in people who've had cancer. "It
also orchestrates a complex biological response that includes direct
anticancer signals from muscles..." Questions remain, of course. Can any type
of exercise fight cancer? Newton and other researchers have doubts. The
exercise in this study was strenuous, by design. "Earlier studies suggested
that the stronger the exercise stimulus, the greater the release of
anticancer myokines," Newton said... Even the weight training in this study
was less potent than the intense intervals. But Newton believes weight
training remains key to cancer fighting. "People with cancer who increase
their muscle mass through resistance training also experience greater rises
in circulating myokines," he said. More muscle means more myokines.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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