Understanding the role of exercise in preventing leukemia

Feature Stories | 12 Jun 2026 | Read time: 5 min | Written by: Laura Dyer

We know exercise affects cancer outcomes, but we don’t fully understand why. The answer may be written in the language of cells.

Researchers have been saying for decades that exercise is good for our health. Studies show structured physical activity can reduce the risk of developing some cancers, improve survival rates, and lower the risk of disease reoccurrence. Despite this knowledge, what scientists still don’t quite understand is…why?

A Queen’s-led research team in the Sinclair Cancer Research Institute is investigating whether tiny messengers in your bloodstream could be the key to unlocking this biological mystery.

“We know that when cancer patients are on an exercise regime, they do better than people who don't exercise, and I want to understand the mechanisms behind why that is,” says Dr. Sheela Abraham, a stem cell biologist, nanoparticle specialist and the project’s lead researcher.

Dr. Abraham and her team believe the answer may lie with extracellular vesicles, or EVs for short. Sometimes described as the body’s ‘postal system’, these microscopic particles carry important cargo like proteins and carbohydrates. But they can also help cells communicate with each other, including sending signals that may influence the development of blood cancers like leukemia.

As part of their investigation, the team will study EVs from several angles.

Sheela Abraham smiling at the camera, wearing a lab coat and pink lab gloves, sitting at a table in front of a microscope, — Dr. Sheela Abraham in the lab.

First, using samples from CanPath, a Canadian health database and research platform, the team will examine whether EVs can serve as early biomarkers for detecting leukemia. Second, they will explore whether, in pre-leukemic and leukemic cases, EVs are actually influencing the progression of cancer. As Dr. Abraham explains:

“Mitochondria are such important powerhouses, in terms of being energy-generating and life-sustaining for the cell. So, we're going to ask the question: in leukemia, do the EVs have properties that impair, or change the mitochondria?”

Finally, the team will examine whether exercise positively changes the biological cargo EVs carry. Depending on the results, further research could use these findings to understand the role EVs play in human health.

“Exercise may release signals from working muscles that communicate with other parts of the body to improve overall health," says Dr. Chris McGlory, Associate Professor in the School of Kinesiology and Health Studies and one of the project’s researchers.

“We will hopefully be able to identify these signals and find out how they work at the cellular level.”

It’s an ambitious inquiry, not just in subject but also in scale. The project brings together expertise from across health sciences fields and disciplines, from cell biology and molecular sciences to epidemiology and kinesiology. In addition to researchers from Queen’s, the project involves collaborators from McGill University and the University of Toronto.

That collaborative approach is essential, says Dr. McGlory. “The questions we are trying to answer are very complex. This project requires expertise in different disciplines to come together and apply different techniques and knowledge to pinpoint the answers to our questions.”

“To tackle the concept of exercise and gain real clinical relevance, it is critical to have the contributions from human exercise, epidemiology partners and fundamental science,’” adds Dr. Edmond Chan, a cell biologist and biochemist and associate professor with Queen’s Department of Biomedical and Molecular Sciences. “I’m very excited to be a part of this team.”

While still in the early stages of its five-year timeline, the project has the potential to make a lasting impact on both public health and clinical care. Not only could findings help inform the development of new drug and exercise-based treatment strategies, but they could also contribute to future approaches to cancer care focused on prevention and earlier detection rather than treating disease after it develops.

For now though, the research team is focused on a question that has intrigued scientists for years: why something as simple as movement produces effects throughout the body that can influence cancer. And by following the breadcrumb trail left by EVs, they just might find out.

This research project is supported by a $2 million Canadian Institutes of Health Research Institute of Cancer Research (CIHR-ICR) Bringing Biology to Cancer Prevention Team Grant.

Read time

5 min

Written by

Laura Dyer

Understanding the role of exercise in preventing leukemia

We know exercise affects cancer outcomes, but we don’t fully understand why. The answer may be written in the language of cells.

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