The composition of the environment outside the cells where lung cancer is growing affects the ability of cancer cells to survive and spread to other areas of the body, including the brain, according to recent research.
Therefore, targeting the malignant components of this extracellular environment could be a promising approach to halt metastasis in lung cancer patients.
The findings were published in the scientific journal Cancer Research, a publication of the American Association for Cancer Research, in a report titled “Extracellular matrix receptor expression in subtypes of lung adenocarcinoma potentiates outgrowth of micrometastases.”
The study’s results have led to a collaboration with a pharmaceutical company to test drugs targeting that pathway, Dr. Don Nguyen, associate professor of pathology at Yale School of Medicine and senior author of the study, said in a press release.
