Beyond the treadmill: A framework for exercise oncology as a platform for translational advance
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Beyond the treadmill: A framework for exercise oncology as a platform for translational advance

Emma S. Kurz
1,2,*
,
Dafna Bar-Sagi
3
*Correspondence to: Emma S. Kurz, Department of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA 02114, USA. E-mail: eskurz@mgb.org; kurze@mskcc.org
EXO. 2026;1:202614. 10.70401/EXO.2026.0015
Received: March 31, 2026Accepted: June 30, 2026Published: July 01, 2026
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This manuscript is made available in its unedited form to allow early access to the reported findings. Further editing will be completed before final publication. As such, the content may include errors, and standard legal disclaimers are applicable.

Abstract

Regular aerobic exercise is associated with increased survival for patients suffering from solid tumor cancers. In the last decade, pre-clinical exercise oncology studies have begun to explore the mechanisms governing the protective effects of exercise, leading to translation of exercise-based regimens into the clinic. However, many patients with intractable solid tumors or those diagnosed at late stage may be physically unable to partake in exercise-based regimens. In this perspective piece, authors argue that the value of pre-clinical exercise oncology work is not limited to direct translation, but should instead be reframed as a means of discovery for novel anti-tumor mechanisms. Exercise-based pre-clinical work should be considered as a discovery engine, wherein mechanisms identified at the intersection of exercise physiology and tumor biology should be independently evaluated for their clinical potential, independent of the need for exercise.

Keywords

Exercise oncology, cancer immunotherapy, metabolome, gut microbiome; myokines, translational oncology

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© The Author(s) 2026. This is an Open Access article licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, for any purpose, even commercially, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

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Kurz ES, Bar-Sagi D. Beyond the treadmill: A framework for exercise oncology as a platform for translational advance. EXO. 2026;1:202614. https://doi.org/10.70401/EXO.2026.0015

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