Effect of aerobic exercise on acquired gefitinib resistance in lung adenocarcinoma

Lung adenocarcinoma patients with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-activating mutations respond well to tyrosine kinase inhibitors but typically develop resistance. Current therapies mainly target differentiated cells, not cancer stem cells (CSCs), but CSCs affect the occurrence, invasion, metastasis and treatment sensitivity of malignant tumours. Recently, aerobic exercise has emerged as adjuvant therapy for cancer. Aerobic exercise can accelerate blood circulation, improve tissue oxygen supply, reduce the stress level of patients, improve the antioxidant capacity of the body, and facilitate the degradation of hypoxia-inducible factor-1 (HIF-1) in tumour tissues, thus weakening its maintenance effect on CSCs. In this study, we successfully established lung adenocarcinoma cell lines with gefitinib resistance. Long-term gefitinib induction could increase the level of oxidative stress in lung adenocarcinoma cells and reduce the antioxidant capacity, resulting in the high expression of HIF-1 and ALDH1 and leading to the enrichment of CSCs, and a decreased response to gefitinib. This may be one of the important reasons for gefitinib-acquired resistance in lung adenocarcinoma. In the case of drug resistance, effective aerobic exercise could reduce ROS, activate SOD, inhibit HIF-1 and ALDH1, and cause a reduction in CSCs to sensitise cells to gefitinib again and ultimately inhibit the malignant proliferation of tumours. Therefore, in the treatment of lung adenocarcinoma, the inhibitory effect of aerobic exercise on oxidative stress can enhance the response of drug-resistant cells to gefitinib and can be used as an effective adjunct measure in the treatment of lung adenocarcinoma.