New Study Explores How Exercise May Help Suppress Tumor Growth in Cancer Patients
Physical exercise may play an important role in suppressing tumor growth in cancer patients. In a recent study, led by UMass Boston physicist Niraj Kumar, PhD and published in the journal Physical Biology in November, a new mathematical model was developed to study how exercise-induced changes in immune function helps assist with tumor suppression.
The study works on the notion that exercise triggers the release of interleukin-6 (IL-6) during muscle contractions. The release of IL-6 causes natural killer (NK) cells to change from an inactive to an active state. Once activated, these cells can target and kill tumor cells. Kumar, in collaboration with T. Bagarti from India and Jayant Tailor, a former UMass Boston undergraduate now pursuing graduate studies at Northeastern University—developed the model to help understand how exercise-induced changes in immune function assist with tumor suppression.
“Cancer is still a leading cause of death everywhere in the world,” Kumar explained. “Recently, there has been a growing interest in exploring ways for cancer treatment by exploiting tumor-immune interactions.”
To better understand this process, Kumar and the team developed the model to investigate how exercise intensity and duration impact immune function activity. The model uses differential equations to predict how the immune system will respond to IL-6 released during exercise. By simulating varied exercise intensity and duration, the researchers were able to show how these factors could affect tumor growth and help optimize tumor suppression.
“Manipulating exercise frequency and intensity within these patterns has a pronounced effect on tumor evolution and can be used in optimizing immune-mediated tumor suppression,” Kumar noted.
The study paves the way for further research into the effects of exercise on tumor and cancer cells. “The parameters associated with these exercise features can be tuned to get optimal suppression,” Kumar said.
In the future, the model may be used to help inform exercise regimens for cancer patients to optimize treatment options.