Pancreatic cancer is one of the most dangerous forms of cancer in the world. It often grows silently and is usually discovered only after it has already spread.
Because of this, survival rates are still very low compared with many other cancers. Scientists are constantly searching for new clues about how pancreatic tumors grow and spread so that better treatments can be developed.
A new study from researchers at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) has uncovered an unexpected factor that may help pancreatic tumors grow: the body’s own stress-related nerves.
These nerves are part of the sympathetic nervous system, which controls the body’s “fight or flight” response during stressful situations. The research suggests that these nerves can directly support pancreatic tumor growth by communicating with cancer cells and other nearby cells.
The study was led by Ariana Sattler, Ph.D., who conducted the work while completing her doctoral training in the OHSU Graduate Program in Biomedical Sciences. The findings were published in the scientific journal JCI Insight.
The sympathetic nervous system is part of the body’s automatic control system. It helps prepare the body for action when we experience stress or danger.
For example, it can increase heart rate, raise blood pressure, and release stress hormones. These changes help the body react quickly during emergencies. However, scientists are now learning that the same stress-related signals may also influence diseases such as cancer.
Inside a tumor, many different types of cells work together to support cancer growth. Scientists often refer to this environment as the “tumor ecosystem.” It includes cancer cells, immune cells, blood vessel cells, and special support cells called fibroblasts. Fibroblasts help create the structure around the tumor and can influence how the cancer behaves.
For many years, researchers have carefully studied these cells. However, nerves have often been overlooked. One reason is that the main body of nerve cells usually sits outside the tumor. Because of this, traditional research tools have had difficulty detecting them. As a result, scientists may have underestimated the role that nerves play in cancer.
To better understand the connection between nerves and pancreatic cancer, the research team developed new tools to track and study sympathetic nerves inside tumors.
They created special markers that allowed them to identify nerve-related signals in tumor tissue. They also built a model that allowed them to remove sympathetic nerves from the pancreas in laboratory mice.
When the scientists studied patient data, they discovered that genes linked to sympathetic nerves were associated with worse survival outcomes in pancreatic cancer patients. This suggested that these nerves might somehow help tumors grow more aggressively.
The team then tested this idea in mice. When they removed sympathetic nerves from the pancreas, the tumors that developed were smaller than normal. This result suggested that the nerves were helping the tumors grow. However, the effect was not the same in all animals.
Interestingly, the reduction in tumor growth only appeared in female mice. Male mice did not show the same change when sympathetic nerves were removed. This surprising result suggests that sex hormones may influence how nerves interact with tumors.
The researchers did not expect this sex-specific effect. According to the study’s senior author, Dr. Ece Eksi, an assistant professor at the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute’s Cancer Early Detection Advanced Research Center, the discovery raises new questions about how hormones may shape the tumor environment.
The nervous system acts like a communication network throughout the body. It constantly sends signals that allow organs to respond to changes in the environment. Because the pancreas is a gland that regularly responds to both nerve signals and hormones, it may be especially sensitive to these signals during cancer development.
Although the findings are still early, the research could eventually lead to new treatment strategies. Some scientists are already exploring whether existing drugs that affect the nervous system might slow cancer growth.
For example, beta blockers are medications commonly used to treat heart disease and high blood pressure. These drugs reduce the effects of stress hormones on the body. Researchers are investigating whether they might also interfere with the signals that help tumors grow.
Another possibility involves devices that stimulate or block nerve activity. Such devices are already used to treat conditions like epilepsy and depression. In the future, similar technology might be studied as a way to interrupt harmful nerve signals that support tumor growth.
This area of research is part of a growing field known as cancer neuroscience. Scientists in this field study how the nervous system interacts with tumors. The basic idea is simple but powerful: tumors do not develop alone. Instead, they interact with many other systems in the body, including the immune system, blood vessels, hormones, and nerves.
Understanding these connections may help scientists discover new ways to slow cancer or prevent it from spreading. However, it is important to remember that this research is still in its early stages. The experiments were conducted mainly in laboratory models, and more work is needed to confirm whether the same processes occur in human patients.
One strength of the study is that it highlights an area of cancer biology that has received little attention in the past. By developing new tools to study nerve signals in tumors, the researchers have opened the door for future studies in this field.
However, the sex-specific findings also show that cancer biology can be very complex. What works in one group may not work in another, and scientists will need to explore these differences carefully.
Overall, the study offers an important reminder that cancer is influenced by many parts of the body. The nervous system, which is usually associated with stress and behavior, may also play a surprising role in how tumors grow.
By learning more about these interactions, researchers hope to find new ways to fight pancreatic cancer, a disease that still urgently needs better treatments.
If you care about cancer, please read studies that a low-carb diet could increase overall cancer risk, and berry that can prevent cancer, diabetes, and obesity.
For more health information, please see recent studies about how drinking milk affects the risks of heart disease and cancer and results showing vitamin D supplements could strongly reduce cancer death.
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