Scientists Discover ‘Roadmap’ Followed by Aggressive Cancers to Spread
A new study whose findings were published in the Nature Communications journal has shown how tumor cells are changed by the environment around them. Because of these alterations, cancer cells alter their shape, thereby escaping from the tumor and spreading to other parts of the organ or body.
The findings of this study have been almost 10 years in the making and they open the door for the development of interventions that could treat cancer prior to its spread.
To understand why this study is pivotal, one must understand the structure of a tumor. Tumors are contained within a structure called the ECM or extracellular matrix. This structure is akin to the scaffolding surrounding a building being constructed.
The researchers from ICR (Institute of Cancer Research) London, under the guidance of Prof. Victoria S. Moreno, led research that identified how cancerous cells leverage the ECM. The team found that the extracellular matrix initiates changes inside the cells of the cancer and that result in changes to their shape, which ultimately eases their ability to break out of the ECM and travel to other parts of the body.
The breakthrough of the researchers creates opportunities for the timely identification of metastatic cancers and makes it easier for those cancers to be targeted by treatments long before they can have a chance to spread. The fortunate thing is that currently, several drugs are being developed indicated for the extracellular matrix of cancers while other drug candidates are targeting the specific genes responsible for the changes in the shape of cancer cells.
The researchers analyzed cancerous tissues from nearly a hundred patients diagnosed with breast cancer or melanoma. They discovered that the layout of the ECM varied distinctly in three parts of the tumor. In the same way that scaffolding has several components, for example structures similar to poles, so did the ECM. In the middle of the tumor, these pole-like structures weren’t tightly packed, and they appeared disorganized. However, those at the boundary of the tumor were thicker and packed tightly.
Additionally, the fibers located on the outermost sections of tumors pointed away from the cancer tumor. It is these fibers that cancer cells leveraged to travel out of the tumor, and it’s noteworthy that the cancer cells here had a round shape. Round cancer cells are known to be very invasive, so it wasn’t surprising to find them close to the border of the tumor.
To test their observations further, the team grew cancer cells from different tumor locations and injected them into mice. When they examined the bio-composition of these different cells, they found higher concentration of migration-linked genes in the round cells found on tumor borders. Inflammation was also higher in these cells, which is a hallmark of aggressive cancers.
The researchers then took tissue samples from people with 14 different cancers, including glioblastoma, pancreatic, breast and lung cancer. The presence of genes triggering ECM changes was linked to shorter survival durations for patients with such cancers.
Additional research is needed to study how this roadmap exploited by cancer cells to travel away from a tumor site can be targeted so that cancers can be treated more effectively while also preventing them from spreading.
As more is discovered on how to leverage the extracellular matrix in the fight against cancer, enterprises like CNS Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: CNSP) could formulate drugs that could dramatically slow down the progression of some of the currently hard-to-treat malignancies, such as glioblastoma multiforme.
NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to CNS Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: CNSP) are available in the company’s newsroom at https://ibn.fm/CNSP
Please see full terms of use and disclaimers on the BioMedWire website applicable to all content provided by BMW, wherever published or re-published: http://BMW.fm/Disclaimer
A new study whose findings were published in the Nature Communications journal has shown how tumor cells are changed by the environment around them. Because of these alterations, cancer cells alter their shape, thereby escaping from the tumor and spreading to other parts of the organ or body.
The findings of this study have been almost 10 years in the making and they open the door for the development of interventions that could treat cancer prior to its spread.
To understand why this study is pivotal, one must understand the structure of a tumor. Tumors are contained within a structure called the ECM or extracellular matrix. This structure is akin to the scaffolding surrounding a building being constructed.
The researchers from ICR (Institute of Cancer Research) London, under the guidance of Prof. Victoria S. Moreno, led research that identified how cancerous cells leverage the ECM. The team found that the extracellular matrix initiates changes inside the cells of the cancer and that result in changes to their shape, which ultimately eases their ability to break out of the ECM and travel to other parts of the body.
The breakthrough of the researchers creates opportunities for the timely identification of metastatic cancers and makes it easier for those cancers to be targeted by treatments long before they can have a chance to spread. The fortunate thing is that currently, several drugs are being developed indicated for the extracellular matrix of cancers while other drug candidates are targeting the specific genes responsible for the changes in the shape of cancer cells.
The researchers analyzed cancerous tissues from nearly a hundred patients diagnosed with breast cancer or melanoma. They discovered that the layout of the ECM varied distinctly in three parts of the tumor. In the same way that scaffolding has several components, for example structures similar to poles, so did the ECM. In the middle of the tumor, these pole-like structures weren’t tightly packed, and they appeared disorganized. However, those at the boundary of the tumor were thicker and packed tightly.
Additionally, the fibers located on the outermost sections of tumors pointed away from the cancer tumor. It is these fibers that cancer cells leveraged to travel out of the tumor, and it’s noteworthy that the cancer cells here had a round shape. Round cancer cells are known to be very invasive, so it wasn’t surprising to find them close to the border of the tumor.
To test their observations further, the team grew cancer cells from different tumor locations and injected them into mice. When they examined the bio-composition of these different cells, they found higher concentration of migration-linked genes in the round cells found on tumor borders. Inflammation was also higher in these cells, which is a hallmark of aggressive cancers.
The researchers then took tissue samples from people with 14 different cancers, including glioblastoma, pancreatic, breast and lung cancer. The presence of genes triggering ECM changes was linked to shorter survival durations for patients with such cancers.
Additional research is needed to study how this roadmap exploited by cancer cells to travel away from a tumor site can be targeted so that cancers can be treated more effectively while also preventing them from spreading.
As more is discovered on how to leverage the extracellular matrix in the fight against cancer, enterprises like CNS Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: CNSP) could formulate drugs that could dramatically slow down the progression of some of the currently hard-to-treat malignancies, such as glioblastoma multiforme.
NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to CNS Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: CNSP) are available in the company’s newsroom at https://ibn.fm/CNSP
Please see full terms of use and disclaimers on the BioMedWire website applicable to all content provided by BMW, wherever published or re-published: http://BMW.fm/Disclaimer
