Overview
- Newcastle University researchers report in the International Journal of Cancer that exercise-conditioned serum rapidly remodeled gene activity in colon cancer cells in vitro, affecting more than 1,300 genes tied to DNA repair, metabolism, and growth.
- Post-exercise blood showed increases in 13 of 249 proteins measured, including interleukin-6, and activated a key DNA repair gene, PNKP.
- The experiment collected blood before and immediately after a roughly 10–12 minute high-intensity cycling bout from 30 overweight or obese volunteers aged 50–78.
- Authors stress the findings are preclinical and do not demonstrate patient benefit, with plans to test durability across repeated sessions and interactions with chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
- Population studies link physical activity to about a 20% lower risk of bowel cancer, and the new mechanistic data may help explain that association and guide development of exercise-mimicking therapies.