Helene Rundqvist

Helene Rundqvist

Researcher | Docent
Visiting address: Alfred Nobels allé 8, 14152 Huddinge
Postal address: H5 Laboratoriemedicin, H5 Klinisk Fysiologi Gustafsson, 141 52 Huddinge
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About me

  • Dr Rundqvist holds a Senior Researcher position at the Department of Laboratory Medicine, combining basic science research in Exercise Oncology with patient intervention studies. She is currently co-PI of two H2020 funded exercise oncology clinical trials, PREFERABLE EFFECT and PREFERABLE LION.

    Dr Helene Rundqvist has a degree in Molecular Biology, and a PhD in Physiology as well as post doctoral experience focusing on the contribution of the immune system to metastatic dissemination in animal models (University of California, SD) and exercise interventions for transgenic animal models of cancer (Department of Oncology and Pathology, KI). 

Research

  • The benefits of physical exercise for patients with a cancer diagnosis are increasingly recognized. We and others have shown that exercise interventions reduce symptom burden, enhance physical functioning, and improve health related quality of life (e.g. OptiTrain and PREFERABLE randomized controlled trials).

    Epidemiological evidence and emerging data from randomized studies suggests that patients who maintain a physically active lifestyle after a cancer diagnosis have a reduced risk of recurrence and improved disease specific survival compared to sedentary individuals. There is increasing evidence, including data from the Rundqvist lab, that a significant part of the anti-neoplastic effects of exercise can be attributed to improved immune cell function.

    Immune surveillance is a critical step in controlling solid tumor progression, accomplished primarily by cytotoxic T-cells and NK-cells. The short-term stress of a single bout of physical exercise induces a transient release of immune cells into circulation. Our current efforts include close characterization of NK and CD8+ T-cells after exercise interventions, with a specifc focus on metabolism, homing and antitumoral effects in animal models of breast cancer metastasis and in patients with advanced disease.

Teaching

  • Extensive experience from teaching at undergraduate, graduate and post-graduate levels giving lectures, seminars, workshop, practicals etc in Statistics, Physiology, Immunology, Cell Biology, Tumor Microenvironment and Metabolism. Responsible course leader and organizer of a 5 week course in Scientific Theory and Statistics, Karolinska Institutet. Supervision of graduate students and post doctoral fellows.

Articles

All other publications

Grants

  • Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
    1 January 2024
    The Kynurenine pathway (KP) represents the major degrading route of Tryptophan metabolism in humans, and has previously found to be dysregulated in various diseases including advanced breast cancer. Chronic inflammatory induced KP overactivation is linked with disease progression and poorer prognosis, while correlating with disease-related symptoms such as fatigue and depression. Therefore, manipulating the KP could be a promising target for pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions in order to counteract advanced breast cancer pathophysiology and disease related-symptoms. In previous RCT’s we already have shown that physical exercise manipulates the KP in healthy subjects and clinical populations including persons with breast cancer. In detail, regular physical exercise is suspected to dampen a pathophysiological over activation of the KP while shifting it towards the neuroprotective kynurenic acid. On the basis of already collected biomaterial of an EU Horizon 2020 funded multicenter two arm randomized controlled trial (n = 357), investigating the impact of a multimodal six-month exercise program in patients with advanced breast cancer, our research should serve for an in-depth analysis of the KP as one underlying pathophysiological process. This translational approach aims to fill the gap between basic mechanistic and patient-orientated factors in the field of exercise oncology and provide evidence for exercise based treatment to address the wide-spread impact on patients disease-symptoms, -progress and -outcome.
  • Swedish Research Council
    1 January 2019 - 31 December 2021
  • Swedish Research Council
    1 January 2017 - 31 December 2019
  • Swedish Research Council
    1 January 2014 - 31 December 2016
  • Swedish Research Council
    1 March 2010 - 31 August 2010

Employments

  • Researcher, Department of Laboratory Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, 2019-

Degrees and Education

  • Docent, Karolinska Institutet, 2025
  • Doctor Of Philosophy, Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Karolinska Institutet, 2008

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