A Turkish Scientist’s Important Tumor Microenvironment Discovery: Cancer Cells Grow Faster in Stiff Tissue

The tumor microenvironment is one of the most important factors supporting cancer development. Recent studies have examined its role in cancer drug resistance, metastasis, and new blood vessel formation. In May 2018, Biomaterialspublished a study using a 3D tissue model, finding that stiff breast tissue creates a favorable environment for cancer growth.

The study was conducted by a team led by Turkish scientist Pınar Zorlutunaat the University of Notre Dame. Cancer cells create a suitable environment for growth and metastasis, known as the tumor microenvironment, one of cancer research’s most studied topics. This study examined interactions between breast cancer cells and connective tissue, creating a realistic 3D (3-dimensional) human tissue model. Its advantage is that it mimics healthy and cancerous tissue structures, allowing laboratory investigation.

According to the Findings:

• Fat cells and breast tissue stiffness were found to support cancer development. Fat cells, collagen, and epithelial cells form the breast microenvironment, with cancer generally beginning around epithelial cells. Earlier research found differences in stiffness between healthy and cancerous tissue. This study showed that stiff tissue creates a tumor-promoting microenvironment and allows cancer cells to alter healthy cells.

What Does This Study Tell Us?

• Using 3-dimensional cancer models developed through tissue engineering, the study created a tumor microenvironment closely resembling reality.
• Similar microenvironment research generally used animal models. However, animal models do not reflect reality: mouse tissue microenvironments and immune systems differ substantially from humans. This creates major drug discovery problems, as most medicines successful in mouse models do not work in human clinical trials.
• Tissue-engineered cancer models may advance drug discovery. Creating actual human tissues in these models may allow more precise assessment of medicine effectiveness.
• The tumor microenvironment is an important factor supporting cancer development. Immunotherapy medicines often fail to achieve the desired effectiveness in solid-organ tumors because of immunosuppressive tumor-associated cells in the microenvironment. These models may enable development of effective medicines targeting such cells.

Different scientific disciplines continue contributing new cancer discoveries. We congratulate our esteemed scientist Pınar Zorlutuna on this successful research and wish her continued success.