Researchers have known for over a century that cancer can spread along nerves as well as moving through the bloodstream and the lymph nodes. But little attention has been paid to the mechanisms of what’s known as perineural invasion.
Until now. Researchers at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center have identified a new cell type involved in cancer metastasis: Schwann cells, the peripheral nervous system cells that promote nerve repair and produce the insulating myelin sheath on axons.
At a poster session Sunday, Senior Research Scientist Sylvie Deborde explained how cancer cells – particularly those originating in highly innervated areas such as the pancreas, prostate, and head and neck cancers – activate Schwann cells and reprogram their nerve repair function to lay out guide tracks for spreading themselves.
Through in vitro experimentation, Deborde and her colleagues observed that cancer cells that come into contact with Schwann cells from dorsal root ganglion induce expression of glial fibrillary acidic protein, or GFAP. The cancer cells then exploit this nerve repair protein’s path-finding function to form chains and migrate along the nerve, later breaking up again to disperse along multiple nerve paths.
More recent experimentation indicates that Schwann cells’ neural cell adhesion molecule, or NCAM1, plays a major role in how the cancer cells move along the neural pathways.
Because cancer patients who are diagnosed with perineural invasion have poor prognoses, Deborde said, she is hopeful that Schwann cells may be a potential target for new treatments.
About the Author:
Janet Rae-Dupree is a Bay Area-based freelance writer covering science and innovation.
