Exercise inhibits tumor progression and improves the therapeutic efficacy of PD-1 blockade in colorectal cancer preclinical models

Exercise training (ExT) has shown antitumor effects in many preclinical cancer models. In the present study, we utilize MC38 and CT26 cells, which represent MSI and MSS colorectal carcinomas respectively, to study the effects and mechanisms of ExT alone or in combination with PD-1 based immunotherapy. Using treadmill running and PD-1/PD-L1 blockade, we demonstrated that post-implant exercise training has broad anticancer activities in murine models of CRC. Specifically, in MSI CRC models, ExT induces beneficial metabolic and immunological adaptations, leading to a more significant inhibition in tumors treated with PD-1/PD-L1 blockade, suggesting a genotype-directed combinatory therapy for the subgroup of CRC patients. Moreover, ExT might be a safe and alternative anticancer strategy for cancers resistant to the PD-1 based immunotherapy, such as patients with MSS CRC tumors. Gene expression profile of MC38 tumor tissue from control, EXT, αPDL1, and the combination groups