Fighting moves
Exercise has upped its game when it comes to kicking cancer.
How working out can help kick cancer to the kerb.
There are lots of ways a workout can help boost your wellbeing, but emerging research suggests it may also be a powerful ally in the fight against cancer. It’s been known for a while that regular exercise can reduce the risk of cancer, as well as offset many side effects of chemotherapy. And now it seems it can enhance the efficacy of chemo treatments, too. A growing body of lab studies shows that exercise reduces both tumour growth and metastasis. One, from US researchers, found that tumours in mice showed significantly greater responses to low-dose chemo when doing moderate exercise five days a week.
While scientists are still figuring out exactly how exercise fights cancer, it’s thought its impact on blood vessel function is a major factor. “One theory is that it can improve [delivery of ] drugs or chemotherapy to the tumour site,” explains Dr Mary Ling, a breast cancer surgeon and one of the expert contributors to new book The Exercise Prescription (cancerexerciseprogram.com.au).
Other studies are investigating the role exercise plays in activating the immune system’s T cells and natural killer cells. “Studies show that in active mice the T cells are different to the sedentary mice, and those T cells have more of an ability to stop tumour growth and kill cancer cells,” says Dr Ling.
STRONG RECOVERY
Sydneysider Siobhan O’Toole, 43, believes exercise played a crucial role in her treatment when she was diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer in 2018. Alongside chemotherapy, she was enrolled in a trial run by oncologist Dr Sara Wahlroos, who was investigating whether strength training could supercharge chemo’s effects.
“I did 60 workouts during my chemo and walked almost 9000 steps a day,” Siobhan recalls.
While the results of Dr Wahlroos’s study are yet to be released, Siobhan says her own results were “amazing”. “They looked at my T cells, natural killer cells and blood levels prior to chemo coming on board, and then with chemo on board plus the exercise,” she says. “I had a 300 per cent increase in the T cell and natural killer cell activation as part of doing the exercise.”
While experts like Dr Ling routinely recommend exercise to patients, the ideal ‘dose’ is still hard to pinpoint. That’s why Siobhan, now in complete remission, is raising money to fund research into creating an effective, scalable exercise program for cancer patients. “I want to make sure it’s part of everyone’s treatment protocol,” she says. “You get chemo? You have to exercise!”