Exercise has numerous advantages, as is widely known, but recent Edith Cowan University (ECU) research has shown just how crucial it may be even for those with advanced disease.
Men with advanced prostate cancer can alter their body’s chemical environment with exercise over the course of six months, according to earlier research from ECU’s Exercise Medicine Research Institute. This can inhibit the growth of cancer cells.
The scientists noticed elevated amounts of “myokines,” or muscle-produced proteins that can inhibit tumor growth and even actively combat diseased cells by inducing a number of anti-cancer activities in the body.
But a new EMRI study has shown a single bout of exercise can elevate myokines even further and induce additional cancer suppression.
Importantly, this exercise-induced medicine is only effective in people with advanced, incurable cancer who have already had significant treatment over a long period of time.
Blood serum was taken before and after 34 minutes of high-intensity exercise on a stationary bike by nine patients with late-stage prostate cancer, and again 30 minutes later.
The team found the serum obtained immediately after this “dose” of exercise contained elevated levels of anti-cancer myokines resulting in suppressed growth of prostate cancer cells in vitro by around 17 percent.
This study provides strong evidence for the recommendation patients with prostate cancer, and likely anybody with any cancer type, should perform exercise most days, if not every day, to maintain a chemical environment within their body which is suppressive of cancer cell proliferation.
Professor Rob Newton
Serum myokine levels and cancer suppression returned to baseline after 30 minutes.
EMRI researcher and study supervisor Professor Rob Newton said it was a breakthrough moment in exercise oncology.
“The findings from our work are particularly exciting because we report for the first time ever that men with advanced prostate cancer are able to produce an acute elevation in anti-cancer molecules called myokines in response to a single bout of vigorous exercise,” he said.
“This is helping us to understand why patients with cancer who exercise exhibit slower disease progression and survive for longer.”
“These patients are palliative, so there is no cure and they will eventually succumb however, there is evidence that exercise will extend survival and the increased myokine levels explored in our recent paper is a prime mechanism.”
Professor Newton said while there is much research still to be done, the results of this study could help shape the advice given to cancer patients immediately.
“The optimal dose of exercise is not yet known, but it is likely to be 20-plus minutes each day and must include resistance training to grow the muscles, increase the size and capacity of the internal pharmacy, and stimulate the myokine production,” he said.
“This study provides strong evidence for the recommendation patients with prostate cancer, and likely anybody with any cancer type, should perform exercise most days, if not every day, to maintain a chemical environment within their body which is suppressive of cancer cell proliferation.”
