A single workout session can slow cancer growth: study

One workout a day may keep the cancer away, according to a new study.

Scientists from Edith Cowan University in Australia have shown that a single exercise session can suppress tumor growth in cancer patients, as well as actively fight cancerous cells — even when it’s in an advanced stage.

The Exercise Medicine Research Institute at ECU found that workouts increase patients’ production of myokines, a protein released by skeletal muscles that aid in communication with other organs — and recent findings suggest they also play a role in staving off chronic disease.

EMRI professor Rob Newton’s latest advancement in the study of myokines, published in the journal Prostate Cancer and Prostatic Diseases, demonstrates that exercise can change the “chemical environment” of the body in a way that helps block cancer growth.

“This is helping us to understand why patients with cancer who exercise exhibit slower disease progression and survive for longer,” Newton said in a Dec. 14 statement.

The team examined nine participants with late-stage prostate cancer, taking blood samples immediately before and after patients had completed 34 minutes of high-intensity exercise on a stationary bike — plus a third sample taken 30 minutes post workout.

The analysis showed higher levels of myokines just after their session. After a half-hour of rest, their myokines levels — and cancer suppressing effects — returned to baseline.

Newton described the study as a breakthrough, saying it could change the way doctors advise their patients with cancer.

“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,” Newton told his university’s newsroom.

To be sure, exercise isn’t a cure for cancer, Newton insisted — noting that all the participants’ cancer was incurable — but it could prolong their life expectancy. “These patients are palliative, so there is no cure and they will eventually succumb,” he said. “However, there is evidence that exercise will extend survival and the increased myokine levels explored in our recent paper is a prime mechanism.”

Scientists have yet to determine the amount of exercise needed, but stated that it’s likely to be around 20 minutes per day — and “must include resistance training to grow the muscles, increase the size and capacity of the internal pharmacy, and stimulate the myokine production,” Newton added.