Positive Prehabilitative Effect of Intense Treadmill Exercise for Ameliorating Cancer Cachexia Symptoms in a Mouse Model

Due to the importance of exercise in prehabilitation, we conducted this study to understand the effects of different exercise intensities on cancer-related cachexia. Forty adult male CDF1 mice were randomly divided into a non-cancer control group (N=10, NC), cancer control group (N=10, CC), cancer with moderate exercise group (N=10, ME, 70% maxHR), and cancer with intense exercise group (N=10, SE, 90% maxHR) for obtaining data such as tissue weight and body weight changes, quality of life (QoL) indicators, and levels of cytokines and a muscle homeostasis regulatory protein. We verified that mouse colonic carcinoma cancer cells metastasized based on our observation that the weight of CC group lungs was almost 87% greater than NC group lungs. Survival rates of SE, NC, ME, and CC groups were 100%, 100%, 80%, and 50%, respectively (p<0.01). Other results such as tissue and body weight changes, QoL indicators, and protein analyses also supported our hypothesis that the SE group had improved survival compared to CC and ME groups (p<0.05 and p<0.01, respectively). Our results suggest that exercise, especially intense exercise, improves QoL and survival rate and prevents muscle atrophy. These data suggest that exercise is an optimal prehabilitation choice to alleviate the negative impacts of cancer cachexia.