Cancer doesn't grow in a vacuum-;each tumor grows in a particular microenvironment within the body and spreads through a tangled web of vasculature and nerves. Scientists have come to understand that the most potent therapies address cancer in context-;accounting for both the tumor and the support structure that forms around it. Now, a new paper in Nature reveals that the activation of sensory nerves within breast tumors is playing a critical role in promoting not only cancer growth but also its spread, known as metastasis .
The findings-;that sensory neurons are secreting a neuropeptide that drives cancer growth and spread through a previously unknown neuro-cancer crosstalk-;suggest that targeting this pathway may help stop breast cancer progression in its tracks. The study also determined that an FDA-approved drug commonly used to treat nausea may prevent metastasis in these instances. "Hyperactivation of neurons has been observed for tumors growing in the brain, but this is the first time we've seen it in an epithelial tumor such as breast cancer," says Veena Padmanaban, a postdoctoral fellow in Sohail Tavazoie's lab and lead author of the study.
"This is an exciting discovery-;no one has seen peripheral nerves release a signal to enhance metastasis before." Getting on cancer's nerves Scientists have long known a relationship exists between cancer cells and the nervous system. Solid tumors secrete proteins that recruit nerves to the primary tumor site.
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