Immune cells that normally repair tissues in the body can be fooled by tumors when cancer starts forming in the lungs and instead help the tumor become invasive, according to a surprising discovery reported by Mount Sinai scientists in Nature in June.
The researchers found that early-stage lung cancer tumors coopt the immune cells, known as tissue-resident macrophages, to help invade lung tissue. They also mapped out the process, or program, of how the macrophages allows a tumor to hurt the tissues the macrophage normally repairs. This process allows the tumor to hide from the immune system and proliferate into later, deadly stages of cancer.
Macrophages play a key role in shaping the tumor microenvironment, the ecosystem that surrounds tumors in the body. By investigating this microenvironment, researchers can find key players that drive tumor growth that can be tested as targets for immunotherapy. But modifying macrophages therapeutically has proven difficult.
In this study, scientists studied tissue samples from lung cancer tumors and surrounding lung tissue in 35 patients to see the role of macrophages in the development of the tumors.
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Nature. Research Paper:
