Background. Elevated and impaired cell-free DNA (cfDNA) clearance are associated with increased tumour burden in chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL). Although exercise has anti-tumour effects, the mechanisms underlying these effects are unclear. In healthy adults, acute exercise induces biphasic increases in cfDNA, followed by reductions upon completion. We aimed to understand the cfDNA...
Exercise leads to reduced symptoms, enhanced physical functioning, improved quality of life, enhanced treatment efficacy, and better overall survival in patients with solid tumors. One of the suggested mechanisms is the modulation of the immune function. During acute exercise, immune cells, and especially CD8+ T cells and NK-cells, are mobilized into the circulatory system. The redistribution...
Sympathetic nervous system (SNS) hyperactivation contributes to tumor progression and cancer-associated immunosuppression. Aerobic exercise training (AET) is known to reduce sympathetic overactivity; however, its role in modulating tumor-induced immunosuppression via β2-adrenergic receptor (β2-AR) signaling remains poorly understood.
Objective:
To investigate how β2-AR signaling regulates...
Background: A systematic review and meta-analysis found that patients with cancer are insulin resistant, which has been associated with poorer treatment tolerance and survival. Exercise may counteract these abnormalities, but mechanistic evidence in metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) during first-line chemotherapy is limited.
Objectives: To characterize glucose homeostasis at baseline and...
Background: Cancer survivors are at increased risk of cognitive impairment that may persist after treatment and adversely affect quality of life. Oxidative stress is a proposed mechanism underlying cancer-related cognitive dysfunction. Dietary antioxidant quality has been linked to cognitive performance in the general population, but evidence among cancer survivors remains limited. This...
Introduction: Exercise is a key factor in reducing cancer risk and improving care, with structured physical activity linked to reduced treatment-related toxicities, enhanced physical function, and better quality of life. Resistance training is specifically recommended to preserve or restore muscle mass and strength during chemotherapy-induced sarcopenia and functional decline; however, its...
Background: Cancer and its treatments, such as chemotherapy, radiotherapy, endocrine, and targeted therapies, often cause systemic effects including chronic inflammation, immune suppression, metabolic alterations, and gastrointestinal toxicity. These complications are increasingly linked to gut microbiota dysbiosis, which plays a central role in maintaining host homeostasis. Although...
BACKGROUND: Exercise has emerged as a potent, non-pharmacological intervention to enhance immune function in patients with cancer. However, the effects of exercise are likely influenced by patients’ oncologic characteristics, such as cancer treatment, and intervention variables, such as exercise intensity, which can lead to heterogeneous outcomes. This scoping review aimed to identify...
BACKGROUND:
Colorectal cancer (CRC) remains a major global health burden. Exercise suppresses tumor progression through mediators such as myokines, metabolites, and miRNAs, and several miRNAs are known to be upregulated in skeletal muscle following physiological stimuli. Although these exercise-responsive miRNAs can enter circulation and exert tumor-regulatory effects, the therapeutic...
Purpose: Cell culture models in exercise oncology enable the assessment of exercise effects on cancer cell tumorigenicity and the identification of physiological predictors. Our research group pioneered the application of 3D translational in vitro approaches to evaluate exercise effects in breast cancer survivors and to explore potential predictors of exercise-conditioned serum...
Obesity and associated metabolic dysfunction are increasingly recognized as major contributors to cancer risk across diverse populations. The National Cancer Institute’s Metabolic Dysregulation and Cancer Risk (MeDOC) Consortium brings together six transdisciplinary research teams to identify mechanisms linking metabolic perturbations to cancer development and to identify actionable strategies...
Background: Modern oncology excels in targeting tumor biology yet often struggles to quantify the "non-molecular" impact of psychological states on disease progression and recovery. While George Engel’s biopsychosocial model challenges this reductionism since 50 years, the precise physiological mechanisms linking socio-emotional distress for example to the tumor microenvironment - and...
Background: Higher physical activity (PA) levels are associated with improved upper gastrointestinal (UGI) cancer outcomes. One possible mechanism that may enable better optimisation of PA is its effects on the gut microbiota (GM), and tumour/oral microbiomes. We aimed to identify gaps in evidence on the relationships between PA and 1) microbiota in cancer, and 2) UGI cancer and related...
Background: Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is a highly lethal malignancy, and many patients are unable to undergo curative surgery due to frailty. Multimodal prehabilitation programs, incorporating exercise, nutritional support, and psychological optimization, improve functional readiness, but their biological impact on the PDAC tumor microenvironment (TME) remains largely...
Background:
Paclitaxel (PTX) frequently causes dose-limiting toxicities (DLTs), notably chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy and neutropenia, leading to reduced relative dose intensity (RDI). Body-surface-area dosing overlooks inter-individual variation in pharmacokinetics (PK), body composition, and physical activity (PA), potentially resulting in under- or overdosing, increased DLT...
Introduction:
Metabolic flexibility is a key determinant of physiological resilience and predictor of complications following radical cystectomy. We hypothesize that the change in the metabolomic profile of cystectomy patients throughout the perioperative period is associated with metabolic flexibility, as determined by preoperative carbohydrate oxidation (CHOox) (g/min)....
Background: The magnitude of cancer risk reduction from physical activity is highly heterogeneous across different cancer types. Preclinical studies indicate that regular exercise enhances anti-tumour immunity, leading to the elimination of immune-susceptible tumour cell clones. Whether this mechanism explains variable risk reduction across clinical cancer types in physically active humans...
INTRODUCTION: Cancer remains a significant burden. Despite advances in diagnosis and treatment improving survival, recurrences are common. Observational studies suggest that physical activity (PA) is associated with lower cancer recurrence, but the linking biological mechanisms remain poorly understood. This study evaluated the effects of two acute running sessions (5 km and 10 km) on the...
Background: Carbohydrate restriction and time-restricted feeding (TRF) have independently shown beneficial effects on metabolic health, including improvements in insulin sensitivity, body composition, and lipid metabolism. However, the combined effects of these dietary interventions with structured exercise on metabolic parameters and lipid profiles remain uncertain. This study investigated...
Background: Exercise exerts antitumor effects through acute systemic responses that modulate tumor biology. In particular, high-intensity interval exercise (HIIE) induces transient changes in circulating factors that may influence cancer cell behavior. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms, subtype specificity, and temporal dependence remain incompletely understood.
Methods: Physically...
INTRODUCTION:
Blood flow (BF) during exercise in non-cancerous tissues in patients may among other things play a role in the development of metastasis, but remains poorly understood. Therefore, the main aim of the present investigation was to determine tissue BF responses in multiple organs during exercise.
METHODS:
Tissue blood flow responses during exercise were analyzed in patients with...
Cancer-related fatigue (CRF) affects the majority of patients during or after cancer treatment and can persist long after treatment completion. Although exercise is the most effective non-pharmacological strategy to reduce CRF, its underlying mechanisms remain unclear. This review synthesizes evidence from randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on biological, behavioural,psychological, social,...
