Breast cancer cells hibernate in the lung before forming secondary tumors

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Cancer risk in psoriatic patients The cancer cells were tested over the course of up to four weeks, during which they remained inactive. In comparison, other cell types continued to remain active, showing that the hibernation of these cells is due to a special relationship they have with the lung environment around them. “The mechanism behind how cancer cells survive in tissues they have traveled to is not yet well understood. But with many cancers spreading around the body and consequently many patients suffering from relapses, a deeper understanding of the process is vital and something we’ll continue to explore,” says Marco Montagner, co-lead author and former postdoc in the Crick’s Tumour Cell Biology Laboratory, who is now based at the University of Padua. Around 55,000 people in the UK are diagnosed with breast cancer each year. This cancer can spread through the blood or lymphatic system to another part of the body, commonly the lungs, liver, brain or bones. Where breast cancer spreads to the lungs, there can be a long time between the cells arriving in the lungs and the formation of a secondary tumor. This gap is one factor that explains why people may relapse a long time after the initial disease. The researchers are continuing to explore the relationship between cancer and non-cancerous cells in a secondary location in the body. At the Crick, researchers are now studying what happens when cells from colorectal cancer and melanomas form secondary tumors in the liver. While at the University of Padua, studies are ongoing into the genes which are over-expressed in hibernating breast cancer cells. Source: The Francis Crick Institute Journal reference: Montagner, M., et al. (2020) Crosstalk with lung epithelial cells regulates Sfrp2-mediated latency in breast cancer dissemination. Nature Cell Biology . doi.org/10.1038/