Is the cure for cancer… a jog?
This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science.
Run for your health, they say. But can you outrun… a tumor?
Enter Catherine Phelps from the University of Pittsburgh. Her team studied melanoma-prone mice. Some exercised, others stayed sedentary.
Surprisingly, tumor growth in runners slowed down by fifty percent! Why? Exercise activated gut bacteria. This boosted production of a chemical called formate. Formate revs up tumor-hunting immune cells. Without microbes or formate, the benefits vanished.
This may be observed in humans too! Cancer patients receiving immune-boosting medicine with higher serum formate levels showed increased survival.
So your next treadmill session might burn more than calories. You could be re-formate-ing your gut against a cancer comeback!
Reference: Phelps, C. M., Willis, N. B., Duan, T., Lee, A. H., Zhang, Y., Pandey, S. P., … & Meisel, M. (2025). Exercise-induced microbiota metabolite enhances CD8 T cell antitumor immunity promoting immunotherapy efficacy. Cell.