![]() ![]() “Lymph nodes are the heart and soul of the immune system,” Dr. ![]() With some exceptions, the study was mostly carried out in mice implanted with melanoma, so additional studies are needed to see if the same phenomenon happens in people and with other kinds of cancer, Dr. It highlights the role of the lymph nodes in the overall immune response to cancer, she said. Many studies have looked at the interplay of immune cells and cancer cells inside tumors, but these findings highlight “action happening somewhere else, outside of the metastatic and primary tumors,” said Hannah Dueck, Ph.D., of NCI’s Division of Cancer Biology. The findings were published May 6 in Cell.Ĭancer cells “not only avoid attack in the lymph nodes, but they actually turn things completely around and somehow convince the immune system to help the tumor spread,” explained the study’s senior scientist, Edgar Engleman, M.D., of Stanford Medicine. As a result, the initial tumor essentially gains a pass to spread to the rest of the body. The study, partially funded by NCI’s Cancer Systems Biology Consortium, showed that cancer cells in the lymph nodes of mice encourage immune cells to protect tumors rather than attack them. When you’re sick and the doctor feels the sides of your neck, they’re checking to see if your lymph nodes are swollen with immune cells fighting off an infection. Lymph nodes are bean-shaped organs that filter viruses, bacteria, and cancer cells out of the body. For more than a century, researchers have debated whether this invasion of lymph nodes helps the cancer spread (or metastasize) to other organs.Ī new study in mice suggests that it is an important step for cancer metastasis, and details how that happens. Before a tumor spreads from its original location to other parts of the body, it typically invades nearby lymph nodes. ![]()
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