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Prostate
Cancer spurs new nerves
Prostate cancer – and perhaps other cancers
– promotes the growth of new nerves and the
branching axons that carry their messages, a
finding associated with more aggressive
tumors, said researchers from Baylor College
of Medicine in the first report of the
phenomenon that appears in the journal
Clinical Cancer Research.
Previous research showed that prostate
cancer follows the growth of nerves, but
this is the first time that scientists have
demonstrated that the tumors actually
promote nerve growth.
"This is the first report of this
phenomenon," said Dr. Gustavo Ayala,
professor of pathology and urology at BCM
and first author of the article.
"It represents an important new target in
prostate cancer treatment, as prostate
cancers are more aggressive when
neurogenesis is present."
Ayala noted that this finding is comparable
to the discovery of angiogenesis or the
growth of new blood vessels. Both are part
of the wound repair process.
"We also believe that axongenesis and
neurogenesis is found not only in prostate
cancer, but is potentially a more global
phenomenon, particularly relating to those
cancers that grow along nerve paths," said
Ayala, also a researcher in the Dan L.
Duncan Cancer Center at BCM.
Ayala and his colleagues studied the
neurogenesis in tissue culture, in human
tissues of patients who had had prostate
cancer and compared to prostate tissues from
patients who had died of other ailments.
They calculated the density of nerves in
human prostate tissues, including those with
prostate cancer. They found that nerve
density was considerably higher in patients
with prostate cancer and in precancerous
lesions.
As part of the study, he used an entire
prostate gland to reconstruct the prostate
and enable scientists to see the growth of
nerves and axons in three-dimensions, a
computerized process that took substantial
continuous computer processing.
He and his colleagues have even identified a
possible method of regulating the growth of
new nerves and axons through a protein
called semaphorin 4F.
Semaphorins are embryologically active
molecules that regulate nerve growth and
direction.
Most disappear in adults, but semaphoring 4F
is active in wound repair. When prostate
cancer cells overproduce semaphorin 4F, new
nerves result. Blocking semaphoring 4F
prevents the growth of new nerves.
###
Others who took part in this research
include: Hong Dai, Michael Powell, Rile Li,
Yi Ding, Thomas M. Wheeler, David Shine,
Timothy Thompson, Dov Kadmon, BrianJ. Miles,
Michael M. Ittmann and David Rowley, all of
BCM. Thompson is now with The University of
Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.
Funding for this research came from the
National Institutes of Health and the Tumor
Microenvironment Network of the National
Cancer Institute.
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