Edith Cowan University (ECU) has unveiled groundbreaking research highlighting the significant impact of exercise, even for individuals battling advanced cancer.
This study, particularly focused on men with advanced prostate cancer, reveals how exercise can alter the body’s chemical environment to impede cancer cell growth.
Previous research from ECU’s Exercise Medicine Research Institute demonstrated that six months of exercise training can transform the body’s chemistry, suppressing cancer cell growth in men with advanced prostate cancer.
The key to this transformation lies in proteins known as ‘myokines’, which are produced by skeletal muscles. These myokines not only suppress tumor growth but also actively combat cancer cells by triggering various anti-cancer processes within the body.
Building on this, the new study from EMRI shows that even a single exercise session can significantly boost myokine levels and enhance cancer suppression.
This finding is particularly crucial for patients with incurable, advanced cancer who have undergone extensive treatment over many years.
In the study, nine patients with late-stage prostate cancer engaged in 34 minutes of high-intensity exercise on a stationary bike. Blood serum was collected before, immediately after, and 30 minutes post-exercise.
Remarkably, the serum taken right after the workout showed heightened levels of anti-cancer myokines, leading to a 17% reduction in the growth of prostate cancer cells in vitro.
However, these elevated myokine levels and their cancer-suppressing effects returned to baseline after 30 minutes.
Professor Rob Newton, an EMRI researcher and study supervisor, called this a breakthrough in exercise oncology.
He pointed out that this is the first-ever demonstration of men with advanced prostate cancer producing an acute increase in anti-cancer myokines in response to a single vigorous exercise session.
This finding helps explain why cancer patients who exercise tend to have slower disease progression and longer survival rates.
Although these patients are palliative, with no cure available and eventual succumbing to the disease, evidence suggests that exercise could extend their survival. The increased myokine levels identified in this study are a key mechanism behind this.
Professor Newton emphasized the need for further research to determine the optimal exercise dose but suggested that it likely involves at least 20 minutes of daily activity, including resistance training to stimulate muscle growth and myokine production.
This study, published in Prostate Cancer and Prostatic Diseases, strongly supports the recommendation for prostate cancer patients, and likely those with other cancer types, to engage in regular exercise.
This exercise regimen helps maintain a body environment that suppresses cancer cell proliferation, offering a potent, non-pharmaceutical strategy in the fight against advanced cancer.
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The research findings can be found in Prostate Cancer and Prostatic Diseases.
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