- A recent study found that high-intensity aerobic exercise increased glucose consumption by internal organs.
- The researchers believe that this association reduces the availability of energy needed for tumors to grow.
- Using data from a prospective study, researchers found 72% fewer metastatic cancers in participants who regularly engaged in high-intensity aerobic activity.
- In another mouse study, researchers found that aerobic activity reduced the development of metastatic tumors in the animals’ lymph nodes, lungs, and liver.
Metastatic cancer is cancer that has spread from where it started to another part of the body.
researchers behind a study 2022 estimated that 623,405 people in the United States were living with metastatic breast, prostate, lung, colorectaleither bladder cancereither metastatic melanoma in 2018.
While working with other researchers, Prof. carmit levyPh.D., an associate professor of human molecular genetics and biochemistry at Tel Aviv University, became interested in how muscle is resistant to metastatic cancer.
That work led to a new study from Tel Aviv University, recently published in cancer researchsuggesting that people can reduce the risk of developing metastatic cancer by engaging in regular high-intensity aerobic exercise.
“Of [being curious] about muscle, we ended up looking into physical activity,” said Professor Levy. today’s medical news. “We said, ‘Okay, there’s something about the activity of the muscle that maybe protects this organ from being a common site of metastasis for all types of cancer.'”
With their work, the researchers identified the mechanism behind the preventive effect of exercise. They found that physical activity increases glucose consumption by internal organs, which means less energy available to the tumor.
Erica Rees-PuniaPh.D., MPH, senior senior scientist in epidemiology and behavioral research at the American Cancer Society, who was not involved in the study, described the underlying mechanism for MNT:
“Simply put, exercise ‘reprograms’ our organs to require more nutrients. At the same time, the healthy organs of athletes can more easily compete with cancer cells (specifically melanoma cells, in the case of this study) for nutrients. This leaves fewer nutrients available for the tumor to use to grow.”
For the study, Prof. Levy and Dr Yftach Gepnera tenured professor at the Tel Aviv University School of Public Health, combined data from a prospective study conducted by the Israel Center for Disease Control and the Department of Nutrition of the Israeli Ministry of Health.
They looked at 2,734 originally cancer-free men and women selected from the Israeli general population between the ages of 25 and 64 who were examined before and after running.
Participants answered two physical activity questionnaires on vigorous and moderate activity lasting 10 minutes. They were followed for a period of 20 years.
In addition, the researchers recruited 14 male and female runners ages 25 to 45.
Participants were excluded for being smokers, taking prescription drugs, or having a history of chronic pulmonary, cardiac, metabolic, or orthopedic conditions.
They were also asked to avoid caffeine for 12 hours, food for 3 hours, and strenuous physical activity for at least 24 hours before arriving at the lab for testing.
Participants ran for 30 minutes on a treadmill at the fastest speed they could handle for the entire duration.
Next, the researchers collected ventilator and metabolic measurements using a breath-by-breath analysis and monitored the participants’ heart rates with a chest strap. They collected blood from the participants before and after exercising.
In another study, the researchers used an animal model in which mice were put through exercise regimens.
They selected female mice because they showed a higher metabolic response to exercise compared to males.
A group of mice was used as a control. The other underwent a physical training protocol on a treadmill. The mice exercised every other day. Gradually, the researchers increased the duration and intensity of the exercise. This continued for 8 weeks.
Then some of the mice were injected with melanoma cells. After 4 days of recovery, the researchers returned these mice to regular treadmill exercise for an additional 4 weeks.
Later, the researchers collected the lungs, lymph nodes, liver, and skeletal muscles of sedentary mice and mice subjected to exercise for proteomic and ex vivo metabolic capacity analysis.
“We take organs that usually harbor metastases,” Levy said. MNT.
“And we said, ‘Let’s dissect those organs and see how these organs behave after long-term physical activity.’
Proteomic analysis of the blood of routinely active participants showed increased carbohydrate use after exercise.
Data from the prospective study showed that exercise before developing cancer had a modest impact on slow-growing cancer diagnoses.
However, exercise “significantly reduced the likelihood of highly metastatic cancer,” according to the researchers.
Among the participants studied, those who reported regular high-intensity aerobic exercise had 72% less metastatic cancer than sedentary participants.
In the mouse study, the researchers found that mice exercised before being injected with cancer cells were “significantly protected” against metastasis in distant organs.
Ex vivo metabolic capacity and proteomic analyzes of mouse organs showed that exercise induces catabolic processes, glucose uptake, mitochondrial activity, and GLUT expression.
When the researchers looked at the organs of the mice, they found that long-term physical activity changes the muscles (increasing muscle mass) and changes the organs.
“We found that internal organs like lymph nodes, like the lungs, like the liver, those organs that usually harbor cancer [are] changing when there is chronic physical activity,” Levy said. MNT.
“They change in [the] feeling that they become super metabolic. And when I say super metabolic, I mean your glucose demand and the demand from your mitochondria is increasing. [and] your glucose uptake is increasing. They are turning into superhero organs.”
When cancer tries to attack these organs, it loses the battle, the researchers believe.
Dr. Adrian Cristianchief of cancer rehabilitation at Miami Cancer Institute, part of Baptist Health South Florida, explained to MNT That with this study, the researchers demonstrated “that exercise induces changes in the microenvironment of cancer cells that make them inhospitable to growth when non-cancerous cells outcompete them in competition for nutrients.”
In future research, Levy said MNTthe researchers could analyze whether the exercise needs a high intensity to obtain the protective effect.
“What we were studying here was aerobics,” Levy said. “I’m not saying that Pilates isn’t doing the same thing. I just don’t know because we haven’t studied other [types] of physical activity.”
The researchers who worked on this study are also interested in seeing how exercise affects people who already have cancer, as well as how long the preventive effect of exercise lasts when people stop exercising regularly.
“How long does the body remember? We don’t know,” Levy said.
Currently, the authors of the present study are analyzing how physical activity impacts brain metastases.
According to Dr. Cristian, more research is needed on how exercise affects the metastatic spread of common cancers, such as breast, prostate, colorectal, lung, and gynecologic cancers.
“Which types of cancer are most responsive to exercise as an intervention to minimize metastatic spread,” said Dr. Cristian.
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