Posted on 02/03/2023 2:17:58 PM PST by ConservativeMind
A team has found a mechanism of recruitment for tumor-associated cells (cancer-associated fibroblasts or CAFs), which are essential to lung adenocarcinoma, the most frequent type of cancer. These cancer-associated cells contribute to all the phases of tumor development, including metastasis.
The study reveals there is a type of inhibitor drug that could be useful against the migratory advantage of these cancer-associated cells, and so could prevent their recruitment and therefore their contribution to the tumor development.
"Lung adenocarcinoma represents 40% of the cases of lung cancer and it produces an early metastasis," says Jordi Alcaraz.
Alcaraz found in previous studies that the SMAD3 protein is selectively overactivated in patients with adenocarcinoma. Now, the new study analyzes the effects of the SMAD3 protein in the cancer-associated cell recruitment, and it analyzes its impact in the tumor dissemination and metastasis generation.
Cancer-associated cells showed a migratory advantage in an environment typical of the early stages of cancer. Also, the researchers observed in these cancer-associated cells a lower proliferative capacity, which involved the SMAD3 promigratory effect as an essential factor for the recruitment and accumulation of CAFs in adenocarcinoma.
As these cancer-associated cells contribute to all the phases of tumor development—including the dissemination—this finding could be decisive for understanding the early dissemination of adenocarcinoma to other organs. Additionally, this migratory advantage was removed by the inhibitor Trametinib, which is already approved to be used in other types of tumors.
The researchers "found that the adenocarcinoma tumor-associated cells have a high migratory capacity. This enables their recruitment to the tumor more easily, and it could favor an early metastasis formation, a process observed in patients but for which the causes are still unknown. In addition, inhibitors such as Trametinib, according to our results, could be effective against recruitment."
(Excerpt) Read more at medicalxpress.com ...
.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.