Can exercise help fight cancer? Scientists at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark have confirmed through experiments in mice for the first time that running helps delay the growth of tumors.
According to a report on the website of "New Scientist" on the 16th, a research team led by Penile Heuman at the University of Copenhagen used mice with cancer to test exercise for five different cancers including skin cancer, lung cancer and liver cancer. What is the effect. They let the mice run 4 kilometers to 7 kilometers every night, and found that the anti-cancer ability of the mouse immune system was improved, which not only prevented new tumors, but also slowed the growth of original tumors by up to 60% . Related results have been published in "Cell-Metabolism" magazine.
This is the first time that experiments have confirmed that exercise can directly control the growth rate of tumors. Researchers found that exercise promotes the secretion of adrenaline, which in turn stimulates the immune system to release natural anti-cancer “killer cells” into the blood. During exercise, the muscles of mice produce a substance called interleukin 6, which can guide "killer cells" to attack tumors.
Lee Jones of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York commented that scientists have known before that exercise can affect the activity of natural "killer cells", but this is the first experiment to prove that exercise can directly help these cells fight tumors. This is long-term. The missing piece of the puzzle since.
However, running exercise did not shrink the tumors of the experimental mice, but only made them grow less quickly. This shows that the existing tumor cannot be reversed by exercise.
Hoyman said that for humans, there is also some evidence that after menopause, exercise can prevent rectal cancer and breast cancer from recurring. Her team plans to follow up cancer patients in the next step to investigate whether their exercise patterns can also have similar good effects on the condition.