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Editorial
. 2014 Apr;106(4):dju042.
doi: 10.1093/jnci/dju042. Epub 2014 Mar 13.

Therapeutic properties of aerobic training after a cancer diagnosis: more than a one-trick pony?

Lee W Jones  1 , Mark W Dewhirst
Affiliations
Editorial

Therapeutic properties of aerobic training after a cancer diagnosis: more than a one-trick pony?

Lee W Jones et al. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2014 Apr.
No abstract available

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Comparison of acute vs chronic effects of aerobic exercise on the tumor microenvironment. Acute exercise reperfuses collapsed vessels in tumor, leading to increased perfusion and reduced hypoxia during exercise. In response to acute exercise, skeletal muscle cells secrete several cytokines (known as myokines, including vascular endothelial growth factor, tumor necrosis factor alpha, interleukin 6, etc) into the peripheral circulation that, in a paracrine-like manner, trigger responses in nonmuscle tissues (eg, the bone marrow) to induce a proangiogenic host phenotype. This phenotype also may recruit tumor inhibitory factors to the normoxic tumor microenvironment that, through the production of nitric oxide (NO) and accumulation of hypoxia inducible factor-1 alpha, enhance immunoregulatory function and apoptosis. Chronic exercise causes a sustained production and bioavailability of NO, leading to global cardiovascular physiologic adaptations, as well as upregulation of endogenous antioxidant machinery, which together reduce circulating levels of proinflammatory cytokines. This, in turn, alters ligand availability in the tumor microenvironment, leading to an increase in angiogenesis and vascular maturity (augmentation of pericyte coverage). The consequent increase in perfusion reduces hypoxia, resulting in a less aggressive phenotype (decreased invasion and metastasis). Currently, the effects of aerobic exercise on other cells in the microenvironment, such as macrophages, lymphocytes, and fibroblasts, are unknown.
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Comment on

References

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