Scientists at Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore General Hospital and Cardiff University collaborated to investigate this association between ageing muscles and cancer in fruit fly and mouse models. Vesicles from ageing muscle also carried different cargo compared to younger muscles. Among other molecules, extracellular vesicles secreted by muscle cells contain miR-7a-5p – a microRNA that can help to restrain tumour growth. Vesicles from ageing muscle contained lower levels of miR-7a-5p, which likely contributes to the loss of tumour suppressive ability in sarcopenic muscles. Although this pathway declines with age, exercise interventions with mouse models reactivated it, suggesting that exercise may help ageing muscles retain their anti-tumour abilities.