FLICKR, ALEXANDRA E RUSTResearchers have long recognized an epidemiological link between exercise and a lower risk of certain cancers, including breast cancer. But experimental evidence nailing down a molecular mechanism for this effect has been lacking. Now, Pernille Hojman of Copenhagen University Hospital in Denmark and colleagues have found a possible clue: epinephrine activation of the Hippo signaling pathway.
Last year, Hojman and colleagues analyzed factors in the blood serum of women who’d survived breast cancer before and after two hours of moderate to intense exercise, identifying increases in lactate, epinephrine, norepinephrine, and certain cytokines. As had previously been noted, the blood drawn after exercise reduced the viability of breast cancer cells in culture. To determine which of these molecules might be responsible, the team examined the blood of seven healthy women and 20 women being treated for early-stage breast cancer, before and after two hours of exercise.
Confirming prior results, the researchers found that blood drawn after exercise thwarted the growth of breast cancer cells in culture, compared with blood drawn before exercise. In addition, mice injected with breast cancer cells that had ...
