Something as simple as stretching could be a powerful weapon in the fight against deadly cancers, according to a new study from local researchers.
“I think we’re now starting to really see the body might be able to mount its own defenses against cancer,” said Dr. Helene Langevin, one of the study’s authors and director of the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. “This is an important stepping stone.”
Langevin and her colleagues studied 66 mice injected with breast cancer cells, dividing them into stretch and no-stretch groups, according to the paper published in Scientific Reports.
One group of mice was regularly lifted by their tails while their front paws grasped a bar. After four weeks, the tumors in the mice that were stretched were 52 percent smaller than the tumors in the non-stretch group, according to the paper.
The research team found that stretching reduced levels of PD-1, a protein that blocks the body’s ability to fend off cancer cells.
The team also measured levels of molecules that fight inflammation, and found them to be higher in the mice that were stretched.
“This is the scientific evidence,” said coauthor Jean Zhao, professor of biological chemistry and molecular pharmacology at Harvard Medical School and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. “The results are very exciting.”
The next step is to see if the effects are the same on other types of cancer, she said. Researchers will also be looking at different kinds of exercises, including running and swimming.
Cancer study shows stretching a big boon | Boston Herald