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A remarkable new study has revealed that just 10 minutes of intense exercise could help fight cancer.
Contents:
- Bowel cancer in the UK
- What is bowel cancer?
- What does exercise do to cancer?
- How did the study work?
Bowel cancer in the UK
Bowel cancer can affect anyone, whatever your age, gender, ethnicity or where you live. Bowel cancer is the 4th most common cancer in the UK, after breast, prostate and lung.
Every 12 minutes, someone in the UK is diagnosed with bowel cancer. That's nearly 44,000 people each year. Every 30 minutes, a cancer patient dies from the disease in the UK.
What is bowel cancer?
In your body, cells normally divide and grow in a controlled way. But when cancer develops, the cells divide and multiply in an uncontrolled way, invading healthy tissues and potentially spreading through the body. This is metastasis - when cancer spreads through the body.
Most bowel cancers develop from non-cancerous growths known as polyps. While not all polyps will develop into cancers, they can be removed by doctors to lower the risk of developing the disease.
What does exercise do to cancer?
It’s been understood that physical activity reduces the risk of developing bowel cancer by approximately 20%. It can be done by going to the gym, playing sports or through active travel such as walking or biking to work, but also as part of household tasks or work like gardening or cleaning.
Now, recent research has strengthened this knowledge by shedding light on how exercise helps fight cancer on a biological level.
Researchers have found that exercise increases the concentration of several small molecules in the blood, many linked to reducing inflammation, improving blood vessel function, and metabolism.
The study, published in the International Journal of Cancer, explains how applying exercise-induced molecules to bowel cancer cells in the lab altered the activity of more than 1,300 genes. These included those involved in DNA repair, energy production, and cancer cell growth.
These findings reveal that exercise doesn’t just benefit healthy tissues, it sends powerful signals through the bloodstream that can directly influence thousands of genes in cancer cells.
‘It’s an exciting insight because it opens the door to find ways that mimic or augment the biological effects of exercise, potentially improving cancer treatment and, crucially, patient outcomes.
‘In the future, these insights could lead to new therapies that imitate the beneficial effects of exercise on how cells repair damaged DNA and use fuel for energy.’ - Dr Sam Orange, Senior Lecturer in Clinical Exercise Physiology and Honorary Clinical Exercise Physiologist at The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
The study found that exercise boosted the activity of genes that support mitochondrial energy metabolism, enabling cells to use oxygen more efficiently.
Dr Sam Orange, Senior Lecturer in Clinical Exercise Physiology and Honorary Clinical Exercise Physiologist at The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
At the same time, genes linked to rapid cell growth were switched off, which could reduce the aggressiveness of cancer cells, and exercise-conditioned blood promoted DNA repair, activating a key repair gene called polynucleotide kinase 3′-phosphatase (PNKP).
How did the study work?
The study involved 30 male and female volunteers. All were between the ages of 50-78 and classed as overweight or obese.
Participants completed a 10 minute cycling test on an indoor exercise bike. The test began at an easy pace and gradually became increasingly difficult over the duration of the test, until the participant reached exhaustion and could no longer keep pedalling.
After completing the test, researchers collected blood samples and analysed 249 proteins.
As many as 13 proteins increased after exercise, including interleukin-6 (IL-6), which helps repair the DNA of damaged cells. The rise in these 13 proteins showed that a single 10 minute bout of exercise activated pathways related to the immune system, maintenance of blood vessel health, and cellular repair. These whole-body signals are part of how exercise sends messages throughout the body, helping cells respond to stress, regulate inflammation, and activate processes linked to tissue maintenance and protection against disease.
‘These results suggest that exercise doesn’t just benefit healthy tissues, it may also create a more hostile environment for cancer cells to grow. Even a single workout can make a difference. One bout of exercise, lasting just ten minutes, sends powerful signals to the body. It’s a reminder that every step, every session, counts when it comes to doing your best to protect your health.’ - Dr Sam Orange, Senior Lecturer in Clinical Exercise Physiology and Honorary Clinical Exercise Physiologist at The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
In the future, researchers plan to test whether repeated exercise sessions produce lasting changes and explore how these effects interact with standard cancer treatments like chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
You might also like:
- read the press release: Short, intensive workouts help fight bowel cancer
- read the study: Exercise serum promotes DNA damage repair and remodels gene expression in colon cancer cells. International Journal of Cancer. Samuel T Orange et al. DOI: 10.1002/ijc.70271
- find out more about The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
- find out more about Dr Sam Orange, Senior Lecturer in Clinical Exercise Physiology and Honorary Clinical Exercise Physiologist at The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
- explore our cancer research stories and research developments on our From blog
- from clinical trials to healthcare research, explore the work of Newcastle University’s Centre for Cancer and the Cancer Research UK Newcastle Cancer Centre
