I want research involving women to be visible here, especially when a topic is so often explained through animal experiments. This study brings women into the picture, in a particular recovery setting.
It also makes a distinction that is easy to miss: the women exercised. They did not receive MOTS-c injections.
Who took part?
Christina M. Dieli-Conwright and colleagues’ paper, published on 19 August 2021, took another look at data from a trial involving breast cancer survivors. This analysis included 49 women: 25 Hispanic and 24 non-Hispanic White participants. [1]
The trial compared a 16-week aerobic and resistance exercise programme with usual care. Researchers measured the MOTS-c already occurring in participants’ blood.
What did they notice?
MOTS-c levels rose significantly after the programme in the non-Hispanic White participants, but not in the Hispanic participants. In the former group, higher levels after exercise were linked with improvements in body composition and several metabolic measures. [1]
The groups differed before the programme, including in age, body fat, cancer stage and metabolic health. The paper also disclosed one author’s consultancy and shareholding in CohBar.
What would be too big a leap?
It would be a leap to say MOTS-c caused the improvements. Exercise can change several things at once, and the study did not separately control each woman’s MOTS-c level.
It would also be a leap to turn these small groups into a rule about ethnic populations. A clear result in one group and an unclear result in another does not, by itself, prove the groups respond differently.
And no clear rise in one blood marker does not mean exercise had no value.
What this adds for me
It is useful human research about exercise and MOTS-c after breast cancer. It does not establish MOTS-c as a treatment, a cancer therapy or a way to prevent recurrence.
If you are returning to activity after cancer treatment, questions about fatigue, confidence and support deserve an individual care discussion. A research summary cannot replace a plan that takes your circumstances into account.
Read the original sources
- Dieli-Conwright and colleagues: aerobic and resistance exercise, MOTS-c and breast cancer survivors ↗Scientific Reports · 19 August 2021 · Secondary analysis of a randomised exercise trial. Published abstract, accessible methods and disclosures reviewed. PubMed abstract and disclosures ↗.