Scientists find Leukemia's surroundings key to Cancer's growth

Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin have discovered that a type of cancer found primarily in children can grow only when signaled to do so by other nearby cells that are noncancerous. Most cancer research to date has focused on understanding the inner workings of cancer cells, and the majority of existing therapies target malignant cells in isolation, working to shrink or remove them through surgery, chemotherapy or radiation. However, in recent years, more scientists have begun to explore not only the cancer "seed" but its surrounding "soil," meaning other factors in the microenvironment surrounding a cancer that cause tumors to grow and spread. Scientists believe that understanding how cancer feeds on its environment could lead to new ways to starve it of conditions required for growth.
"It's only more recently that people have really appreciated that tumors are complex organs in and of themselves with all of the heterogenous cell types that can talk to each other and promote each other's survival and proliferation," says Lauren Ehrlich, an assistant professor of molecular biosciences.
Ehrlich's team found for the first time that a neighboring cell in the soil around T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) creates the necessary condition for that cancer to grow. Without the interaction with the outside cell, the cancer collapses, unable to grow or survive the way it does in a T-ALL patient.