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Updated: Jun 11, 2025
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Modeling Brain Metastasis by Internal Carotid Artery Injection of Cancer Cells
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Cancer neuroscience at the brain-body interface
1Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, New York 11724, USA bornige@cshl.edu.
Genes & Development
|October 3, 2024
Summary
Cancer disrupts the brain-body communication network, impacting the entire organism. Understanding this complex interaction is crucial for developing new cancer therapies and improving patient outcomes.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Oncology
- Systems Biology
Background:
- Cancer research traditionally focuses on tumor cells and microenvironment.
- The nervous system plays a critical role in maintaining bodily homeostasis.
- Emerging evidence suggests cancer disrupts the brain-body communication axis.
Purpose of the Study:
- To present cancer as a challenge to host homeostasis.
- To highlight recent advancements in understanding cancer's systemic effects.
- To identify key questions for future research in this interdisciplinary field.
Main Methods:
- Review of current literature on cancer and the nervous system.
- Discussion of neuronal and humoral signaling pathways.
- Conceptual framework of cancer as a homeostatic disruptor.
Main Results:
- Cancer disrupts the bidirectional communication between the brain and peripheral systems.
- This disruption occurs through both neural and non-neural (humoral) mechanisms.
- Aberrant brain activity and accelerated disease progression are consequences of this disruption.
Conclusions:
- Viewing cancer as a homeostatic challenge offers a new paradigm for research.
- Further investigation into the neuro-immune-endocrine interactions in cancer is essential.
- Addressing outstanding questions will advance the field and potentially lead to novel therapeutic strategies.
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