Stress Helps Ovarian Cancer Cells Escape
Chronic stress triggers a chain of molecular events that protects breakaway ovarian cancer cells from destruction.
In preclinical research, scientists found that heightened levels of the fight-or-flight stress hormones epinephrine and norepinephrine permit more malignant cells to safely leave the primary tumor, a necessary step in metastasis and cancer progression.
They also found that ovarian cancer patients face earlier mortality when a crucial protein activated by the hormones is present at high levels in their tumors and that patients with depression have higher levels of this activated protein.
Two promising approaches ¡ª directly silencing a crucial protein or using beta blockers to preempt its activation ¡ª worked in cell culture and mouse models, making them candidates for human use.
¡°Restoring cancer cells¡¯ vulnerability to anoikis (a form of programmed cell death) would open a new avenue for suppressing tumor growth and metastasis,¡± says Anil Sood, M.D., professor in MD Anderson¡¯s departments of Gynecologic Oncology and Cancer Biology and first author.
Reported in the May 3 issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation.
