Break Cancer Res: break cognition! Bone cells can stop cancer metastasis!

May 22, 2019 / biool / - in breast cancer patients, there are such examples: some men and women have cancer recurrence in bone 20-30 years after their primary disease is treated, but they think they have no cancer This phenomenon has been plaguing Dr Karen bussard, a researcher at Thomas Jefferson University When a patient is considered cancer-free after treatment, how does the breast cancer cells in the primary tumor reach the bone? What happens in the bone that allows cancer cells to survive for 30 years, but stay asleep and wake up decades later? In answering these questions, Dr bussard recently discovered a kind of bone cell, which can inhibit cancer cells and slow down the growth of cancer cells, even in the most aggressive triple negative breast cancer Photo source: the results of research published in the Journal of breast cancer research raise some interesting questions: how these bone cells play their sleep inducing role, and whether it is possible to replicate and permanently put cancer into dormancy "Cancer has an incredible ability to turn other cell types it comes into contact with into cancer cells," said Dr bussard, assistant professor of cancer biology at Thomas Jefferson University and a researcher at the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center Jefferson health center For example, cancer cells can turn the immune cells that kill them into their own guardians However, we have now found a group of bone cells that can not only fight cancer, but also fight cancer It's amazing "Dr bussard, together with co-authors and graduate students alexus D Kolb and Alison B shupp, et al, studied the changes of the interaction between bone cells and breast cancer cells in bone Specifically, they studied osteoblasts, a type of bone cell, that deposit new bone like cement during growth and repair The team found that the function of mouse and human osteoblasts changed dramatically after they interacted with bone metastatic breast cancer cells Early studies have shown that in patients with advanced metastatic breast cancer, osteoblasts stop working and do not produce a matrix that stabilizes and strengthens the bone These changes lead to a decrease in bone mineral density, which is common in these patients In her new study, Dr bussard and colleagues point out that in the early stages of the disease, when cancer cells enter the bone for the first time, osteoblasts do not produce new bones, but instead transfer energy to production factors, thus preventing the growth of cancer cells When human or mouse osteoblasts are exposed to three negative or estrogen receptor positive breast cancer cells, these cells migrate to the bone, and osteoblasts release factors that change the behavior of cancer cells These factors can change the infinite growth balance of cancer cells and restore the production of cell cycle checkpoint protein p21, which can prevent the endless replication of metastatic breast cancer cells Dr bussard's team found that when bone cells come into contact with metastatic breast cancer cells, the growth rate of cancer cells slows down On the other hand, osteoblasts without interaction with metastatic breast cancer cells cannot slow down the growth of cancer cells "The osteoblasts that build bones have a complex relationship with cancer," Dr bussard said "In the late stages of the disease, we know that metastatic breast cancer cells can use normal bone cells to help cancer metastasis However, our new research shows that in the early stage of the disease, such as the first migration of metastatic breast cancer cells to bone, these osteoblasts exposed to cancer can resist and resist the growth of cancer "Understanding how breast cancer cells grow through bone metastasis has been a long-term goal in the field of breast cancer research Dr bussard's breakthrough findings pave the way for the development of new strategies to prevent or treat metastatic diseases The next step, Dr bussard said, is to fully describe the molecules that osteoblasts control cancer growth, and see if it is possible to translate this information into treatment, so that cancer cells will remain dormant forever Reference: alexus D Kolb et al, fossils are "educated" by crosstalk with metallic breast cancer cells in the bone tumor microenvironment, breast cancer research (2019) Doi: 10.1186/s13058-019-1117-0