Antitumor potential of exercise-conditioned human serum Systematic review of in vitro and clinical findings

Abstract

Cancer remains a significant cause of global morbidity and mortality, and non-pharmacological strategies such as exercise are increasingly gaining attention as supportive therapies. One widely studied mechanism is exercise-conditioned human serum, which contains biochemical factors that can potentially suppress cancer cell growth. This study aims to systematically review the clinical and in vitro evidence regarding the antitumor potential of post-exercise serum. Following PRISMA guidelines, the literature search was conducted through PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, Embase, and the Cochrane Library databases. Of the 1,258 articles identified, only 12 met the inclusion criteria for analysis. The review results indicate that exercise interventions, including high-intensity interval training (HIIT), resistance training, multimodal training, and whole-body electromyostimulation (WB-EMS), consistently improve cardiorespiratory fitness, modulate cancer biomarkers, and suppress tumour cell proliferation. In vitro studies have shown that post-exercise serum can inhibit proliferation, increase apoptosis, and regulate molecular pathways such as Akt/mTOR, IL-6, and other myokines. Meanwhile, clinical studies confirm that structured exercise provides both physiological benefits and biological effects on cancer progression, particularly prostate, breast, colorectal, and pancreatic cancers. Overall, these findings emphasize that exercise has significant potential as a supportive therapy strategy and as part of a multimodal approach to cancer management.