Dr. Kerry Courneya

So they've not looked at what's causing that increase in blood

hemodynamic shear stress.

So yeah, in theory, both strength training and aerobic exercise should be able to do it.

The one study that's been done in humans showing that exercise improves or reduces circulating tumor cells was an aerobic exercise program.

But in theory, both should work.

That's right.

So the way that cancer spreads is it has to shed cells from the primary tumor and they have to circulate throughout the blood vessels and they have to get somewhere else.

And so if you're preventing that or reducing that, you should be able to reduce the number of metastases.

That's absolutely critical because that's what ultimately kills cancer patients.

Right, so breast cancer, prostate cancer, you think of these cancers, the breast is not a vital organ.

Women can live without a breast, so how do you die from breast cancer?

Prostate cancer, men can live without a prostate, how do you die from prostate cancer?

It's because these tumors shed these cells and they disseminate throughout the system

And then they arrive at places like the brain, the lungs, the liver, and the bone.

And they set up what we call sort of colony tumors there.

And they begin to grow and invade those organs.

And that's how you ultimately die from breast cancer.

If it's localized, you're not going to die from breast cancer.

And so preventing that spread is really the critical aspect.

And so reducing the number of circulating tumor cells is critical.