Blog

Sami (Papacek) Mansfield: Should Exercise Be Prescribed Alongside Immunotherapy?

Sami (Papacek) Mansfield/LinkedIn

Jun 10, 2025, 02:38

Sami (Papacek) Mansfield: Should Exercise Be Prescribed Alongside Immunotherapy?

Sami (Papacek) Mansfield, Founder of Cancer Wellness for Life, shared a post on LinkedIn:

“Should Exercise Be Prescribed Alongside Immunotherapy? We wouldn’t skip dosing schedules or lab monitoring—so why are we still leaving exercise off the treatment plan?

We’ve known for years that exercise improves strength, function, and quality of life for people with cancer. But emerging research suggests we may be overlooking one of its most powerful roles: Priming the immune system to fight cancer from within. A new randomized controlled trial from the University of Surrey Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust Surrey looked at patients with esophageal adenocarcinoma who completed a 16-week structured exercise program—exercise during chemotherapy and before surgery.

The results? Patients who exercised had:

Significantly more tumor-infiltrating immune cells (CD8+ T cells & NK cells)

Signs of mature tertiary lymphoid structures (immune hubs that predict better treatment response)

Improved fitness, resilience, and surgical recovery

In some cases, no detectable tumor remained during surgery. Here’s why this matters even more: 15–20% of our treatments are estimated to be immunotherapy. 1000’s of trials are happening across the globe.

If exercise can enhance immune activation within the tumor, it could help:

Improve response rates to existing therapies

Make tumors more susceptible to future treatments

Provide a low-cost, high-impact strategy that works with medicine—not instead of it

And let’s not forget the additional benefits of exercise during cancer treatment:
Reduced fatigue, anxiety, and depression
Maintained muscle mass and metabolic health
Improved recovery, surgical outcomes, and quality of life
Exercise is not just supportive care—it’s therapeutic.

The next step? The OPTIMUS trial will test whether higher-intensity prehabilitation amplifies these immune effects further. It’s time to elevate movement from an afterthought to an integrated tool in precision oncology. Let’s ask: How can we better use lifestyle interventions like exercise to transform immune response and survival?”