ReviewJournal for immunotherapy of cancer2021
Exercise and the immune system: taking steps to improve responses to cancer immunotherapy.
Review in Journal for immunotherapy of cancer, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 109 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
109 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) clinical practice guideline on immunotherapy for the treatment of renal cell carcinoma, version 3.0.Journal for immunotherapy of cancer · 2026Guideline
- Effect of Exercise on Immune System Markers in Cancer Patients and Survivors: A Systematic Review.Journal of sports science & medicine · 2025Pooled it
- Gut microbes and immunotherapy for non-small cell lung cancer: a systematic review.Frontiers in oncology · 2025Pooled it
- Effectiveness of Exercise-Based Interventions on Molecular Biomarkers in Head and Neck Cancer (HNC) Survivors: A Systematic Review.Integrative cancer therapiesPooled it
- Effects of a short-term multicomponent functional exercise program on the serum proteome: an exploratory study in hospitalized older adults.The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences · 2026Trial
- Exercise intensity and training alter the innate immune cell type and chromosomal origins of circulating cell-free DNA in humans.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Trial
- Impact of a moderate-intensity aerobic exercise intervention on systemic and uterine natural killer cells in women with unexplained recurrent pregnancy loss.Frontiers in immunology · 2025Trial
- Exploring the feasibility of exercise training during (neo)adjuvant chemotherapy in women with early-stage breast cancer: a pilot study examining immune and metabolic outcomes.Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer · 2026Article
- Patient stratification in exercise oncology: matching exercise modalities to immune phenotypes to optimize immunotherapy response.Translational oncology · 2026Review
- Cellular senescence and aging: molecular mechanisms and convergent pathways.Cellular and molecular life sciences : CMLS · 2026Review
- The lethal symbiont: exploring the pathophysiology of cancer.Physiological reviews · 2026Review
- Integrated mechanisms and clinical relevance of exercise driven remodeling of the tumor immune microenvironment.Translational oncology · 2026Review
- Exercise-related genes predicts overall survival and tumor immune microenvironment, and identifies the biological role of SLC52A2 in breast cancer.Discover oncology · 2026Article
- Exercise-induced musclin enhances efferocytosis via metabolic reprogramming to alleviate periprosthetic joint infection.Journal of sport and health science · 2026Article
- Exercise during chemotherapy or chemoradiotherapy and treatment delivery and tumor response outcomes: a scoping review.BMC cancer · 2026Article
- Exercise-mobilized lymphocytes enhance the function of cytokine-induced memory-like NK cells against myeloid leukemia.Blood advances · 2026Article
- Co-Designing Lung Cancer Rehabilitation Services for People Treated With Immunotherapy.Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy · 2026Article
- Radiation as an immune modulator: mechanisms and implications for combination with immunotherapy.Nature reviews. Cancer · 2026Review
- Exercise Boosts the Immune System and Enhances Immunotherapy Responses in Pancreatic Cancer and Mesothelioma.Biomolecules · 2026Article
- Exercise and CD8Journal of molecular medicine (Berlin, Germany) · 2026Review
49 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The remarkable success of cancer immunotherapies has provided new hope to cancer patients. Unfortunately, a significant proportion of patients remain unable to respond to immunotherapy or maintain durable clinical responses. The lack of objective responses likely results from profound immune dysfunction often observed in patients with cancer. There is substantial evidence that exercise and physical activity can reduce incidence and improve outcomes in cancer patients. As the immune system is highly responsive to exercise, one potential avenue to improve immune function is through exercise and physical activity. A single event of dynamic exercise results in the substantial mobilization of leukocytes with increased functional capacities into the circulation. Chronic, or long-term, exercise leads to higher physical fitness in terms of greater cardiorespiratory function and/or muscle strength and endurance. High aerobic capacity, as measured by maximal oxygen uptake, has been associated with the reduction of dysfunctional T cells and improvements in the abundance of some T cell populations. To be sure, however, the mechanisms of exercise-mediated immune changes are both extensive and diverse. Here, we examine the evidence and theorize how acute and chronic exercise could be used to improve responses to cancer immunotherapies including immune checkpoint inhibitors, dendritic cell vaccines, natural killer cell therapies, and adoptive T cell therapies such as chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells. Although the parameters of optimal exercise to yield defined outcomes remain to be determined, the available current data provide a compelling justification for additional human studies and clinical trials investigating the adjuvant use of exercise in immuno-oncology.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.