{"id":22631,"date":"2025-09-15T11:28:14","date_gmt":"2025-09-15T11:28:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/22631\/"},"modified":"2025-09-15T11:28:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-15T11:28:14","slug":"the-single-exercise-that-kills-cancer-cells-scientists-reveal-in-new-study-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/22631\/","title":{"rendered":"The single exercise that kills cancer cells, scientists reveal in new study"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s the most tried and true health advice: regular exercise is key to warding off obesity, aging and chronic diseases.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mountains of research also shows working out just a few days a week could slash the risk of dying from cancer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

However, a new study has pinpointed a specific workout routine<\/a> shown to slow the growth of cancer cells, even after just one session.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Researchers in Australia recruited women who had survived breast cancer and had them undergo a single bout of either resistance training, such as weightlifting, or high-intensity interval training (HIIT), which involves short, intense bursts of exercise followed by short breaks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They found that immediately after one 45-minute resistance or HIIT session, participants showed up to 47 per cent more myokines in their blood.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Myokines are proteins released by skeletal muscle cells during exercise that help muscles communicate with the rest of the body.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They have also been shown to regulate metabolism and suppress molecules that cause inflammation, a key driver in cancer cell formation.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The team estimated that the increased myokines produced may slow cancer growth by 20 to 30 per cent.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Researchers <\/p>\n

Researchers in Australia found resistance training and high-intensity interval training (HIIT) may slow cancer cell growth<\/p>\n

Your browser does not support iframes.<\/p>\n

Francesco Bettariga, lead study researcher and PhD student at Edith Cowan University in Australia, told the Daily Mail: ‘By demonstrating anti-cancer effects at the cellular level, our results provide a potential explanation for why exercise reduces the risk of cancer progression, recurrence, and mortality.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘While our study has limitations and further in vivo work is needed, these findings highlight how exercise could contribute to improved survival outcomes in people with cancer.’<\/p>\n

The study, published earlier this summer in the journal Breast Cancer Research and Treatment<\/a>, looked at 32 patients who had been treated for breast cancer, ranging from stage one to stage three, at least four months beforehand.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The largest cancer stage group was stage two (41 per cent).\u00a0<\/p>\n

The average participant age was 59 with a body mass index (BMI) of 28, which is considered overweight but not obese.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Participants in the resistance training group completed eight repetitions of five sets of exercises for major muscle groups.\u00a0<\/p>\n

These included chest press, seated rows, shoulder press, lateral pulldowns, leg press, leg extensions, leg curls and lunges.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Participants in this group got one to two minutes between sets to rest.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the HIIT group, participants performed seven 30-second bouts of high-intensity exercise on at least three of the following exercise machines: stationary bike, treadmill, rower and cross-trainer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They had three-minute rest periods between sets.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bettariga told this website: ‘We selected two distinct exercise modalities\u2014resistance and aerobic training\u2014because they provide different physiological benefits: resistance training improves muscle strength, while aerobic training enhances cardio-respiratory fitness in order to determine which exercise could drive greater cancer-suppressive effects.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘Specifically, we used a high-intensity exercise to determine whether greater intensity could amplify these anti-cancer effects.’<\/p>\n

Both groups completed about 45 minutes of exercise in total.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

Researchers also performed blood tests on participants at three separate times: before working out, immediately following the sessions and 30 minutes after working out.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The team found that completing either the resistance or HIIT regimen just one time increased levels of myokines in participants’ blood.<\/p>\n

The largest jump was in the myokine IL-6, which increased 47 per cent in the HIIT group immediately after exercise. IL-6 is a protein released from muscles during exercise that plays a crucial role in immune function.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the resistance group showed a 23 per cent increase in decorin, a myokin that regulates tissue growth, and a nine per cent increase in IL-6.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The team found myokine levels gradually decreased over time after participants finished working out, though they remained elevated.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Based on results, researchers estimated the myokine levels produced from exercising could reduce the growth of cancer cells by 20 to 30 per cent.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Myokines have been shown to suppress inflammatory proteins called cytokines. Cytokines are secreted by immune cells to control inflammation.<\/p>\n

However, high cytokine levels can trigger excess inflammation, which damages cell DNA and increases the risk of cancer cells forming.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Breast <\/p>\n

Breast cancer is one of the most common forms of the disease, striking 311,000 US women every year and killing 42,000<\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

A recent study in JAMA found that breast cancer rates went up by about 0.79 per cent each year from 2000 to 2019<\/p>\n

Bettariga said: ‘We found that both resistance training and HIIT increased the release of myokines with anti-cancer properties after just a single exercise session. We then observed a reduction of up to 30 per cent in cancer cell growth in [lab testing].\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘What stood out was that both modalities had comparable effects, suggesting that exercise intensity is the main driver of these anti-cancer changes, rather than the specific type of exercise performed.’<\/p>\n

Breast cancer strikes 311,000 American women every year and kills 42,000, according to the American Cancer Society.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While the disease generally has a high survival rate of 92 per cent, that rate can drop as low as 33 per cent if cancer cells spread to other areas.<\/p>\n

It’s also on the rise among young women, with rates increasing by 0.8 per cent every year from 2000 to 2019, one study suggests<\/a>. Experts have tied this rise to hormone-disrupting chemicals and early menstruation, which can increase exposure to hormones like estrogen that can fuel breast cancer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Though the new study results are promising for breast cancer, it’s unclear if they would translate to other forms of the disease.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bettargia said: ‘Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women and the leading cause of cancer-related death in women. Surprisingly, no studies with this specific design had been conducted in this population, making our findings highly relevant to millions of women living with breast cancer.’<\/p>\n

There were several limitations, including the small sample size and the focus on only one form of cancer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bettariga told this website that the team next plans to investigate these effects in other types of cancer and groups of people with the disease.<\/p>\n

He said: ‘It is now time to examine the effects of regular, long-term exercise programs on these anti-cancer responses. We also aim to explore additional mechanisms, particularly the role of the immune system, which plays a crucial part in controlling cancer cell growth.’<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It’s the most tried and true health advice: regular exercise is key to warding off obesity, aging and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22034,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[539,499,103,61,60],"class_list":{"0":"post-22631","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fitness","8":"tag-dailymail","9":"tag-fitness","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22631"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22631\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}