Oncology News
27 Aug 2025
We have seen many research studies published in recent times showing that exercise boosts the immune system in a way that combats various types of cancers. A study just released by the University of Pittsburgh may have discovered exactly how the body converts exercise into cancer fighting cells.
The study titled “Exercise-induced microbiota metabolite enhances CD8 T cell antitumor immunity promoting immunotherapy efficacy” was published on July 8th, 2025. The study conducted on mice demonstrated how an input of exercise effectively reshaped the gut microbiome and enhanced the response to immunotherapy.
“We already knew that exercise increases the effectiveness of cancer immunotherapies, and we separately knew that exercise changes the microbiome in mice and humans,” said senior research author Marlies Meisel, Ph.D.
“This study connects those dots by showing how exercise-induced changes in the gut microbiome boost the immune system and enhance immunotherapy efficiency via formate. These findings open the door to new therapeutic strategies targeting the microbiome.”
Initially, the study compared mice which had undergone exercise for four weeks with those that had remained sedentary and noted the melanoma-induced tumours in the exercised mice where notably smaller. Additionally, the survival rate for these mice was higher. The study then treated all the mice with antibiotics and found that this notable difference between exercised mice and sedentary disappeared.
It was then deduced that the presence of microbes in the gut played a key role in fighting the aggressive form of melanoma, “When we removed microbes from the equation, exercise no longer had any effect on cancer outcomes in mice,” said Phelps. “We were surprised to see such a clear signal that the beneficial effects of exercise were due to the microbiome.”
Delving deeper into the microbiome, the study discovered that it was a particular metabolite produced by the gut bacteria which they are calling ‘formate’. With exercise this formate enhanced ‘CD8 T’ cells which are the main immune fighters against cancer.
“...when they performed faecal microbial transplants (FMT) from people with either high or low levels of formate into mice with aggressive melanoma, strikingly, the animals that received the high formate faecal transplant had enhanced T cell activity and better tumour control.” (Oncology News)
It is certainly a breakthrough in understanding exactly how exercise helps fight cancer and a study to watch closely for future developments.
For the full research article: