Surprise discovery of new cell type<\/p>\n
Among the study’s most significant findings is the identification of a previously unknown cell type – called perineural cancer-associated fibroblasts, a type of connective tissue cell located near nerves in cancers.<\/p>\n
“These perineural fibroblasts in tumours appear to have specialised machinery to communicate with nerves. We don’t yet know what these cells are doing, but the role of nerves in tumours is getting increasing attention in the cancer field. We’ve been able to classify these cells at the molecular level for the first time, giving them a distinct identity,” says Prof. Swarbrick.<\/p>\n
The tendency for tumours to grow in and around nerves in prostate cancer has long been associated with worse patient outcomes. This discovery of specialised cells that interact with these nerves provides a new piece of the puzzle in understanding how prostate tumours may recruit nerves, or spread to other parts of the body along the nerves to cause metastatic disease.<\/p>\n
Next steps<\/p>\n
The research team plans to expand the number of patients studied and investigate specific cellular populations, particularly those cells that look healthy but harbour genetic changes.<\/p>\n
“We’ve had a peek through the window, but it’s still somewhat blurry,” says Prof. Swarbrick. “Now we have more precise questions about these pre-malignant cells, and we can apply more focused techniques to be crystal clear about the sequence of genetic events that drive this cancer.”<\/p>\n
Future work will also focus on understanding the function of the newly discovered perineural fibroblasts, which may reveal why prostate tumours that contain more nerves have worse outcomes.<\/p>\n
While the team emphasises this is fundamental science rather than of immediate clinical application, the findings pave the way for future development of predictive tests.<\/p>\n
Given the high incidence of prostate cancer, even small improvements in early detection and treatment selection could benefit thousands of Australians.<\/p>\n
This research was supported by Mr John McMurtrie AM and Mrs Deborah McMurtrie, and The Petre Foundation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Surprise discovery of new cell type Among the study’s most significant findings is the identification of a previously…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":324640,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[64,63,137],"class_list":{"0":"post-564361","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-health"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=564361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564361\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=564361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=564361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=564361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}