Studies have revealed many lines of communication between tumors, nerves, and other nearby cells. Their elaborate crosstalk may promote the growth and spread of cancer. Learn more on WorldCancerResearchDay:
In 1998, Gustavo Ayala, a young pathologist, landed at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, ready to start to see patients. But his state medical license was delayed, and during 4 months of unexpected freedom, he found himself hunched over lab dishes, absorbed by a strange kind of cellular courtship.
To some experts, those revelations from basic biology help explain a controversial link between chronic stress and cancer progression. The work has also prompted several clinical trials testing whether blocking nerve signaling slows tumors' spread. Those studies have yet to show long-term benefits for patients, but optimism is high."The field, I feel, is about to explode," Vermeer says."People are starting to take notice.
So Sood and others went hunting for mechanisms. The researchers focused on the sympathetic nervous system, which orchestrates our"fight or flight" response to a perceived threat. The hormones epinephrine and norepinephrine play a key role in the response, increasing heart rate and blood pressure. Sympathetic nerves, which weave through our organs and signal to them, release those hormones into nearby tissue.
Why would cancer cells form alliances with nerves in the first place, tuning in to their signals and drawing them close? One idea is that a nerve-rich neighborhood is simply a friendly place for cancer, says Steven Cole, a genomics researcher at the University of California, Los Angeles. Because nerves expand and migrate regularly, they crank out molecules that encourage growth and motility—which a nearby cancer cell will gladly drink up.
"There are still a lot of unknowns" about the stress-cancer link, Sood says. Nerve activity may promote cancer regardless of whether a person is under particular stress, he says, and nerves may be a driver only at particular stages in a tumor's evolution.
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