Study Shows How Tumors Remodel Their Surroundings to Grow

the Oncology Nurse Advisor take:

The loss of the p62 protein in tumor cells and the surrounding tissue can enhance the growth and progression of tumors, according to research from Sanford Burnham Medical Research Institute. The findings add to the acknowledgement that the stroma (cells and tissue surrounding a tumor) is an integral part of cancer initiation, growth, and expansion. In a previous study, the researchers demonstrated that p62 activation had tumor-promoting effects in prostate and lung cancer epithelial cells. The researchers studied the effects of p62 in the adjacent tissue in this study and found that it had the reverse effect there. The researchers hypothesize that combining treatments that inhibit tumor-promoting inflammatory signals with tumor-specific targets may be a more comprehensive approach for improved cancer outcomes.