Cancer's dependence on cholesterol: A critical player in cancer survival and spread
In a recent review, Tuula Kallunki and her team in the Cancer Invasion and Resistance Group talk about how cancer cells rely heavily on cholesterol for their survival, growth, and invasiveness.
Cholesterol's role in cancer progression has often been overshadowed by studies focusing on its synthesis within cancer cells. However, new research is shedding light on an equally critical aspect — how tumours exploit their environment to fuel growth.
Tuula Kallunki shares some insights into the review:
“The topic of how and why cancer cells and tumours take up cholesterol from their surroundings and its importance to cancer has not been well covered in scientific journals. So far, most research and reviews have focused on how cancer cells make cholesterol and how to block this process. However, recent studies show that cancer cells can also take up cholesterol and other fats from their surroundings by various cancer-inducible mechanisms. It's well known that breast and ovarian cancers grow and spread in areas rich in fat and cholesterol, so why wouldn’t they utilise it.”
What did you conclude?
“We concluded that, in some cases, blocking how cancer cells take up cholesterol from their surroundings could be just as important as blocking how they make it. Recent findings, including our own work, suggest that some cancer cells, particularly in breast and ovarian cancers, activate their cholesterol uptake mechanisms based on their needs. Essentially, they do whatever they need to survive and grow.”
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What do you hope for in the future?
“We hope that future research will also focus on tumours' ability to take up cholesterol, especially when blocking cholesterol production isn't enough to stop tumour growth. Some cancer cells can switch to this uptake mode when their cholesterol-making process is blocked. We suggest that more studies be done to identify individuals and tumours that are strongly affected by inhibition of cholesterol synthesis versus those that can easily activate cholesterol uptake when synthesis is inhibited. These naturally would not benefit as much from the synthesis inhibition, which is a current treatment strategy considering cholesterol metabolism in cancer. Research on cholesterol uptake, and particularly its importance at an individual level, is still new, and we wanted to draw attention to this growing area of study”
Read the review in full here:
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1 个月Very informative! For Breast Cancer Awareness Month, I’m sending out an infographic on breast self-exams to every woman I meet this month. I encourage you to share it with your female family and friends too. If this helps even one woman catch cancer early, we’ve accomplished something significant. Together, we can take a stand against this disease!