Exercise May Help Reduce Severity of Cancer Cachexia

A new study has identified another benefit of maintain an exercise routine. In experiments with mice, the researchers found that exercising before developing cancer was associated with slower tumor growth and helped arreduce the effects of a cancer complication known as wasting syndrome or cachexia.

Cachexia is a metabolic wasting disorder that affects up to 80% of patients with advanced cancer and is associated with a third of all cancer deaths. People with cachexia experience severe and progressive muscle wastinga deterioration of the structure and the heart function and poorer overall quality of lifereviewed Infosalus.

“Most exercise, especially aerobic exercise, is easily accessible and affordable Louisa Tichy, a graduate student in Traci Parry’s lab at the University of North Carolina, says. Therefore, engaging in consistent aerobic exercise, such as running, is a cost-effective way to reduce the risk of cancer and its complications”.

Tichy will present the new research at the annual meeting of the American Society for Investigative Pathology during the Experimental Biology (EB) 2022 meeting, which is being held in Philadelphia.

Previous research has shown that exercise might have anti-inflammatory effects and might positively influence cancer cachexia by slowing its development and preserving cardiac structure and function. However, very few studies have focused on preconditioning.

“Our preclinical study indicates that preconditioning – or exercise prior to tumor onset – appears to play a important cardioprotective role during cancer cachexia by preserving cardiac structure and function Tichy points out. It also helped slow tumor growth, even when the animals did not exercise during the period of tumor support.”

For the new study, the researchers studied mice that either exercised on a treadmill for eight weeks or did not exercise at all. After eight weeks the researchers induced cancer in some of the exercised mice and in some of the sedentary micewhile keeping some cancer-free mice from both groups to act as controls.

The researchers discovered that mice with cancer and a sedentary lifestyle had poorer heart function -measured with echocardiography- than mice that exercised before cancer induction. In addition, the mice in the exercise group had a smaller tumor volume and 60% less tumor mass than the mice in the sedentary group.

“These data are crucial in identifying the importance of exercise and the best time to exercise as a preventive and protective measure once morest the deleterious effects of cancer cachexia,” Tichy says.

The researchers are working to understand the underlying proteins and pathways that are affected by cancer and exerciseso that this information can be used to inform exercise interventions.

They also point out that to create safe and effective exercise interventions for cancer patients it would be necessary to evaluate the best intensity, duration and timing of exercise in preclinical models before moving on to studies in people.