Every person carries altered cells in the course of their life. Most of them die or are eliminated by the body. But some manage to survive and grow. Why is that? This is what an international research team involving researchers from Dresden has now discovered and published in the journal Nature.
Tumor cells send distress signals
The University of Cambridge, the Faculty of Medicine at Technische Universität Dresden (TUD) and the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (MPI-CBG) in Dresden are involved. The researchers investigated early stages of esophageal cancer in mice. Their findings are surprisingly clear.
As soon as an early tumor cell develops, it sends stress signals to the surrounding tissue.
These signals activate certain connective tissue cells, known as fibroblasts. They react in a similar way to a wound: they build a supporting scaffold made of the protein fibronectin around the tiny tumor. This creates a kind of protective zone, which the researchers refer to as a "precancerous niche". Tumors with this niche survive. Tumors without it disappear. It has been known in cancer research for years that it is not only genes that determine whether a tumor grows, but also its environment. What is new is that this mechanism starts so early, even before the tumor leaves the first cell layer.
