Environment of tumors impacts metastasis, study finds | News | Notre Dame News | University of Notre Dame Skip To Content Skip To Navigation Skip To Search University of Notre Dame Notre Dame News Experts ND in the News Subscribe About Us Home Contact Search Menu Home › News › Environment of tumors impacts metastasis, study finds Environment of tumors impacts metastasis, study finds Published: October 27, 2015 Author: Gene Stowe Siyuan Zhang If a tumor is like a seed, the soil around it plays a significant role in its growth, a new study finds. According to the study’s results, the microenvironment of a tumor cell has significant impact on cancer metastasis. This discovery by Siyuan Zhang at the University of Notre Dame and a team at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center has focused attention on fighting cancer in the tumor cell’s microenvironment. Zhang, who earned an M.D. from the Peking University Health Science Center in China and a Ph.D. from the National University of Singapore, was recruited in 2007 to the Texas team that expected to see an increase of brain metastasis when PTEN, a known tumor-inhibiting protein, was artificially deleted in a tumor cell. Results were perplexing — sometimes there was even less metastasis in the brain — but the group unexpectedly discovered that PTEN was reduced in tumor cells when they arrive in brain tissue. That suggested critical importance of the tissue environment, what Zhang calls the “seed and soil” model: Tumors that grow in one kind of tissue won’t grow in another easily. They need to adapt to the new “soil.” “By changing the soil, we potentially can suppress metastasis,” he says. “The microenvironment has tremendous impact on how the gene is expressed, what type of gene will be expressed. It’s definitely not due to genetic mutation. The point of this paper is we should not overlook the huge influence of the tissue architecture, the tissue environment, the tissue composition. It’s a dynamic process.” Zhang’s laboratory now seeks to understand the mechanisms of the tissue-environment influence, opening the possibility that the environment could be altered in a way that fights cancer by preventing tumor cell growth. Zhang, the Nancy Dee Professor of Cancer Research, has published the breakthrough, “Microenvironment-induced PTEN loss by exosomal microRNA primes brain metastasis outgrowth,” this month in Nature. Contact: Siyuan Zhang, 574-631-4635, szhang8@nd.edu Posted In: Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Research Home Experts ND in the News Subscribe About Us Related September 12, 2022 Can you tell me how to get to Sesame Street … in different countries? September 12, 2022 Hurricane Harvey’s hardest hit survivors five times as likely to experience anxiety from COVID-19 pandemic August 29, 2022 Gender-diverse teams produce more novel, higher-impact scientific discoveries, study shows August 23, 2022 In race against hurricane season, engineers launch survey to study incentives for climate-resilient homes August 16, 2022 Early childhood lead exposure, exacerbated by structural racism, results in lower reading scores For the Media Contact Office of Public Affairs and Communications Notre Dame News 500 Grace Hall Notre Dame, IN 46556 USA Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube Pinterest © 2022 University of Notre Dame Search Mobile App News Events Visit Accessibility Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube LinkedIn