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©The Author(s) 2026. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Oncol. Jan 24, 2026; 17(1): 112039
Published online Jan 24, 2026. doi: 10.5306/wjco.v17.i1.112039
Published online Jan 24, 2026. doi: 10.5306/wjco.v17.i1.112039
Acute exercise-induced catecholaminergic responses after 16 weeks of community-based exercise training in early-stage breast cancer survivors
Jeb F Struder, Aiden J Chauntry, Lauren C Bates-Fraser, Elizabeth P Harrell, Jordan T Lee, Chad W Wagoner, Stephanie A Sullivan, Claudio L Battaglini, Erik D Hanson, Department of Exercise and Sport Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, United States
Lauren C Bates-Fraser, Jordan T Lee, Chad W Wagoner, Claudio L Battaglini, Erik D Hanson, Human Movement Science Curriculum, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, United States
Lauren C Bates-Fraser, Jordan T Lee, Hyman B Muss, Claudio L Battaglini, Erik D Hanson, Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, United States
Chad W Wagoner, Department of Kinesiology, Recreation, and Sport Studies, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996, United States
David B Bartlett, School of Biosciences, University of Surrey, Guildford GU2 7XH, Surrey, United Kingdom
David B Bartlett, Division of Medical Oncology, Duke Cancer Institute, Duke University, Durham, NC 27710, United States
Hyman B Muss, Department of Hematology Oncology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, United States
Brian C Jensen, Department of Medicine, Division of Cardiology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, United States
Author contributions: Battaglini CL, Hanson ED, and Muss HB acquired necessary funding support for the study; Bartlett DB, Battaglini CL, and Hanson ED supervised project administration, developed study methodology, and contributed to conceptualization in correspondence with Wagoner CW and Lee JT; Bates-Fraser LC, Hanson ED, Harrell EP, Jensen BC, Lee JT, Struder JF, Sullivan SA, and Wagoner CW conducted the investigation; Chauntry AJ and Struder JF performed the statistical analysis with visualizations provided by Struder JF; Hanson ED and Struder JF drafted and revised the manuscript, with final manuscript approval received from all co-authors.
Supported by the Breast Cancer Research Foundation of New York, NY, No. BCRF-17-112; the National Cancer Institute’s National Research Service Award sponsored by the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of North Carolina, No. T32 CA116339; and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health, No. R01HL162805 and No. R01HL157187.
Institutional review board statement: The study was approved by the Protocol Review Committee at the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center (LCCC1630: Get REAL and HEEL Research Program) and by the Institutional Review Board of UNC-Chapel Hill (IRB #16-3284).
Clinical trial registration statement: This study is registered at ClinicalTrials.gov with the Get REAL and HEEL Research Program. The registration identification number is NCT03760536.
Informed consent statement: All study participants provided informed written consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors report having no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
CONSORT 2010 statement: The design of this project was a non-randomized control trial. As such, we do not believe that the CONSORT 2010 statement applies in this situation.
Data sharing statement: Data set available from the corresponding author (Erik Hanson; edhanson@email.unc.edu) upon reasonable request.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Erik D Hanson, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Exercise and Sport Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Exercise Oncology Research Laboratory, Campus Box #8700, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, United States.
Received: July 16, 2025
Revised: August 19, 2025
Accepted: December 8, 2025
Published online: January 24, 2026
Processing time: 188 Days and 17.3 Hours
Revised: August 19, 2025
Accepted: December 8, 2025
Published online: January 24, 2026
Processing time: 188 Days and 17.3 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: Exercise training partially restored immune cell responses previously diminished within untrained breast cancer survivors (BCS) immediately post-exercise. Epinephrine and norepinephrine are exercise-responsive and regulate immune cell function, suggesting a role in this training-induced restoration. Acute exercise induces similar BCS catecholaminergic attenuation; however, it is unclear whether this is sustained post-training. In this study, we aimed to compare acute exercise-induced catecholaminergic responses between BCS and non-cancer controls (CON) before and after a training intervention. BCS and CON presented with similar exercise-induced catecholaminergic responses regardless of training, suggesting the immune cell revival previously observed may be regulated by alternative mechanisms.