Don't wake up the sleeping cancer

Reactivation of "sleeping" cancer cells was associated with stress

Sergey Vasiliev, Naked Science

Even after successful treatment, the cancer is able to return. Individual tumor cells that have escaped from the blow and have been "hiding" in the body for a long time return to activity. The mechanisms underlying this dangerous process remain not fully understood. Recently, they were investigated by an international group of scientists led by Dmitry Gabrilovich from AstraZeneca. In an article published in the journal Science Translational Medicine (Perego et al., Reactivation of dormant tumor cells by modified lipids derived from stress-activated neutrophils), they indicate a link between tumor recurrence and stress.

The authors obtained lines of laboratory mice to simulate the reactivation of lung and ovarian cancer tumor cells. By fixing them in place immobile, scientists caused stress in animals and demonstrated that these conditions trigger a relapse of the disease. Reactivation was accompanied by the accumulation of oxidized lipids in the blood, which trigger signaling growth pathways in cancer cells.

It is known that these lipids are formed under the action of the enzyme myeloperoxidase. In turn, the enzyme is activated by proteins S100A8 and A9, which produce immune cells-neutrophils. Well, neutrophils themselves can be activated under stress, including under the influence of hormones such as norepinephrine and cortisol. Thus, scientists have traced a path of several steps that can lead from a stress reaction to a relapse of the tumor.

It was also confirmed by the example of a group of 80 volunteers after lung cancer treatment. 17 of them experienced an unusually early relapse, and the content of both lipids, S100 proteins, and "stress" hormones in their blood really turned out to be higher than in people who remained in remission.

Finally, scientists set up new experiments on rodents, parts of which were given beta-blockers that reduce the amount of "stress" hormones. Animals of this group were indeed less likely to experience a recurrence of the tumor. Although it is too early to talk about the final conclusions, and even more so about the new therapy, the authors believe that more attention should already be paid to controlling stress levels in patients undergoing treatment for cancer and after it.

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