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© Parkes Lab, Translational Histopathology Laboratory, University of Oxford.
The study, led by Professor Eileen Parkes and her team in the Department of Oncology at the University of Oxford, analysed patient-donated tumour samples and found that the most dangerous types of oesophageal cancers share a key feature: high chromosomal instability. This means the cancer cells constantly make mistakes as they grow and divide, making them more aggressive, harder to treat, and allowing them to adapt more easily.
However, the research team discovered that this instability doesn’t just make the cancer grow faster: it also changes how the tumour interacts with the body’s own defence systems.
Using newly developed laboratory models of oesophageal cancer, the researchers found that cancers with unstable chromosomes ‘switch on’ certain genes. These genes were shown to send out chemical signals that attracted inflammatory immune cells into the tumour, bolstering its defence.
“We’ve known for some time that chromosomal instability makes cancer more aggressive, but what we’ve discovered is that it also fuels inflammation in oesophageal cancer in a way that actually helps the tumour,” said Dr Bruno Beernaert, postdoctoral researcher in the Parkes lab and DPhil in Cancer Science alumnus. “Instead of triggering an effective immune attack against itself, the cancer appears to hijack the body’s own defence systems, the immune response, to help it to survive treatment and spread.”