Posted on 04/05/2025 10:25:00 AM PDT by ConservativeMind
Call it a new type of precision medicine. A researcher says one day oncologists may be able to write personalized exercise "prescriptions" for cancer patients that suppress tumor growth.
Jay Taylor helped develop a mathematical model that attempts to quantify the relationship between exercise, immune function and cancer.
The paper looked at models of mice running on wheels to show that increases in exercise intensity and duration decrease the proliferation of malignant cells.
According to the paper, the team worked on a mathematical model to describe the transition of natural killer cells from inactive to active states due to exercise-induced levels of a protein called interleukin (IL) 6.
A type of signaling molecule or cytokine, IL6 is either anti-inflammatory or inflammatory depending on how it's generated in cells, Taylor says.
"If it's generated through exercise, it's anti-inflammatory," he says. In their anti-inflammatory state, the cytokines influence natural killer cells to become active and kill cells in malignant tumors.
"The IL6 triggers those natural killer cells that are part of our immune system. (Exercise) helps the natural killer cells switch states from inactive to active."
The intensity of exercise reduces tumor size, a phenomenon that continues through multiple stops and starts in the exercise routine, Taylor says.
"Increasing duration also decreases the level of tumor cells," Taylor says. By increasing blood flow, exercise also brings a river of natural killer cells to cancer sites.
"We found that multi-bout exercise increased the suppression more," he says. "While the parameters for duration and intensity are still unknown, we found that there was a sustained tumor suppression."
"We modeled the growth of (tumors) over time and saw that when we introduced exercise, it would decrease and kind of steady out."
(Excerpt) Read more at medicalxpress.com ...
It would seem to be inline with others that point to sugars fueling cancer cells, exercise would burn it up, leaving the body to take energy from fat stores which does not feed cancer.
Unraveling the role of exercise in cancer suppression (it helps)!
In the past 4-6 years, we have had friends/and people we know diagnosed with terminal cancer diagnoses.
3 separate cancer treatment centers have recommended 2 brisk walks every other day or daily.
All the patients have out lived their estimated survival time.
Interesting the connection between exercise, and anti-inflammatory effects.
A good friend said something years ago which always stuck with me, and felt was accurate: “If you feel like you are getting sick - its time for an intense workout.”
I have started considering our 3X week HIIT workouts medicine...
Along the same lines, from a Dr. Mercola article August 09, 2024
A 30-Minute Exercise Session Increases Tumor-Killing White Blood Cells Researchers from University of Turku in Finland examined how a 30-minute moderate intensity cycling session in uenced various immune cell subsets in the blood of 19 breast cancer patients between the ages of 36 and 68. The participants had not yet started cancer treatments, and participated in the cycling session at a resistance of their choice.Significant changes in immune cell composition occurred following exercise, including increases in several key immune cell types, such as total leukocytes, neutrophils, lymphocytes and various T-cell subsets. Of particular interest was the substantial increase in natural killer (NK) cells, which showed a remarkable 202% increase at the end of the exercise period compared to resting levels.
The researchers also noted changes in the proportions of different immune cells. The percentage of NK cells and CD8+ T-cells increased, while the proportion of myeloid derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) decreased. These shifts suggest a potential move toward a more anti-tumorigenic immune pro le following exercise.
"The balance of different types of white blood cells determines whether the immune system works to destroy cancer or to support it. If there are more cancer-destroying cells than cancer-promoting cells in the tumor area, the body is more capable of ghting cancer," study author Tiia Koivula said in a news release.
Interestingly, the study also found correlations between certain immune cell mobilizations and aspects of the patients' disease state, such as tumor size and hormone receptor status. Koivula continued:
"We found that during the exercise, the number and proportion of cancer destroying cells increases in the bloodstream, while the proportion of cancer promoting cells either stays the same or decreases. However, it is still unclear whether these changes seen in the bloodstream also lead to changes in the white blood cell counts in tumor area.
In this study, it was seen that the number of almost all white blood cell types decreased back to resting values one hour after the exercise. With the current knowledge, we cannot say where the white blood cells go after the exercise, but in preclinical studies, cancer-destroying cells have been seen to migrate into the tumor area."
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