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Our Favorite Cancer Stories of 2022
Our Favorite Cancer Stories of 2022,This year, cancer researchers uncovered a variety of ways that tumors can survive and spread, ranging from damaging their own DNA to exploiting the nearby microenvironment for nutrients.

Our Favorite Cancer Stories of 2022

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How Exercise Helps Mice Fight Pancreatic Cancer

Perhaps it’s unsurprising to read that there are health benefits to exercise (in mice). Humans with pancreatic cancer were already known to fare better if they maintained an exercise regiment than those who didn’t, but research published in Cancer Cell this June was the first to identify at least one of the underlying biological mechanisms. In the study, scientists found that mice who ran on appropriately adorable, miniaturized treadmills for 30 minutes per day had higher levels of interleukin-15, a cytokine typically released during exercise. The cytokine then mobilized a subset of cancer-killing immune cells, which were better able to infiltrate and destroy the tumor. In a preliminary human analysis, the scientists found that tissue samples taken from human pancreatic cancer patients who participated in an exercise program contained a higher number of those immune cells than did non-exercising controls. With this mechanism in hand, the authors of the study expressed cautious optimism that exercise could help improve treatments for what’s otherwise a particularly difficult, deadly cancer.





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