Exercise therapy effect on natural killer cell cytotoxic activity in stomach cancer patients after curative surgery.

Abstract

To evaluate the effect of early exercise therapy on the natural killer cell cytotoxic activity (NKCA) of patients who had undergone curative resection of stomach cancer. Prospective study. Thirty-five stomach cancer patients who had undergone curative surgery were randomly divided into an exercise group (n = 17) and a control group (n = 18). From postoperative day 2, moderated exercise using arm and bicycle ergometers performed twice a day, 5 times a week, for 14 days. The intensity of exercise was 60% of maximal heart rate. Venous blood samples were obtained on postoperative days 1, 7, and 14. Mean sequential change of NKCA. The mean sequential change of NKCA decreased until postoperative day 7 and then increased. Mean NKCA of day 7 decreased in both groups, compared with that at postoperative day 1. At day 14, the mean NKCA of the exercise group demonstrated a significant increase compared with that of the control group (p < .05). This study suggests that early moderate exercise has a beneficial effect on the function of in vitro NK cells in stomach cancer patients after curative surgery.