Do I need collagen to avoid cancer recurrence?

For cancer patients, the spread of cancer cells is undoubtedly a nightmare
.

Compared with the tumor at the primary site, metastatic cancer is more difficult to cure and has a higher fatality rate

Limited by the technical ability to observe cancer cells in vivo, this question has not been answered for a long time
.

Now, a new study published in "Nature Cancer" has achieved an important breakthrough: a research team from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in the United States found that the content of a type of collagen around cancer cells controls the state of cancer cells

The technical basis for the research team to achieve this breakthrough is a new generation of two-photon in vivo microscopy imaging technology
.

This high-resolution imaging technology allows researchers to observe in real time what happens to dormant cells in the microenvironment of living animals

With the help of this technology, the research team injected human head and neck squamous cell carcinoma and breast cancer cell lines into mice to track the changes in cancer cells in the mice
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They found that after leaving the original position, cancer cells secrete type III collagen into the surrounding environment

Previous studies have found that this extracellular matrix protein limits the ability of breast tumors to form metastatic cancer, but the relationship between it and cancer cell dormancy has not been studied
.

A new study by Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai found that in the dormant phase, type III collagen is contained in the microenvironment of cancer cells; when its content decreases, the cancer cells are also activated, further leading to metastatic cancer

▲Comparison of the content of type III collagen in the microenvironment of active and dormant cancer cells (picture source: reference [1])

Synchronous changes in type III collagen and cancer progression seem to indicate some correlation between the two
.

If this protein really controls the dormancy and activation of metastatic cancer cells, then artificially increase the content of type III collagen around the cancer cells, and the cancer cells should be maintained in a dormant state

Subsequently, this conjecture was initially verified in mouse experiments: When the research team increased the content of type III collagen in the microenvironment, the cancer process in the mice was blocked, and the cancer cells scattered in various parts were also forced to Go to sleep
.

In human patients, the relationship between the two has also been further verified
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Analysis of clinical cases of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma found that compared with patients whose cancer cells have metastasized to lymph nodes, lymph node-negative patients have higher levels of type III collagen, so the large number of this protein may inhibit the development of metastatic cancer.

In addition, the research team also revealed the signaling pathways through which type III collagen affects the state of cancer cells
.

When type III collagen binds to discoid domain receptor 1 (DDR1), it activates a protein called signal transducer and activator of transcription 1 (STAT1)

▲COL3A1–DDR1–STAT1 signal path (picture source: reference [1])

According to this study, increasing the content of type III collagen in the tumor microenvironment can prevent cancer cell metastasis by stimulating the dormant state of cancer cells
.

Note: The original text has been deleted

Reference materials:

[1] Julie S.
Di Martino et al.
, A tumor-derived type III collagen-rich ECM niche regulates tumor cell dormancy.
Nature (2021) https://doi.
org/10.
1038/s43018-021-00291-9

[2] Researchers discover how cells from tumors remain dormant for years before metastasis occurs.
Retrieved Dec.
13 2021 from https://