The Stress and Cancer Link: 'Master-Switch' Stress Gene Enables Cancer's Spread
Aug-29-2013

In an unexpected finding, scientists have linked the activation of a stress gene in immune-system cells to the spread of breast cancer to other parts of the body.

Researchers say the study suggests this gene, called ATF3, may be the crucial link between stress and cancer, including the major cause of cancer death -- its spread, or metastasis. Previous public health studies have shown that stress is a risk factor for cancer.

Researchers already know that ATF3 is activated, or expressed, in response to stressful conditions in all types of cells. Under typical circumstances, turning on ATF3 can actually cause normal and benign cells to commit suicide if the cells decide that the stressors, such as irradiation and a lack of oxygen, have irrevocably damaged the cells.

This research suggests, however, that cancer cells somehow coax immune-system cells that have been recruited to the site of a tumor to express ATF3. Though it's still unclear how, ATF3 promotes the immune cells to act erratically and give cancer an escape route from a tumor to other areas of the body.

"It's like what Pogo said: 'We have met the enemy, and he is us,'" said Tsonwin Hai, professor of molecular and cellular biochemistry at The Ohio State University and senior author of the study. "If your body does not help cancer cells, they cannot spread as far. So really, the rest of the cells in the body help cancer cells to move, to set up shop at distant sites. And one of the unifying themes here is stress."

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