ECM fibrils were radially aligned by the cancer cells (right), while the fibrils remained network-like in the culture containing normal cells (left).
Cancer Cells Modify Extracellular Matrix to Induce CarcinomaAssociated Fibroblasts By Catherine Graham During cancer development, cancer cells sometimes recruit healthy cells surrounding the tumor to become their accomplices.These accomplices are known as carcinoma-associated fibroblasts (CAFs). CAFs promote tumor growth and metastasis. Therefore, cancer patients with a higher number of CAFs face a worse prognosis. CAFs have been studied in terms of how they
promote tumor progression, but their origin remains a mystery. Yun Chen, associate researcher in the Department of Mechanical 12 research
Engineering and associate faculty member at the INBT, and her team, are studying the underlying mechanisms by which breast cancer cells turn healthy cells into CAFs during early stages of breast cancer. Cancer cells induce CAFs by delivering chemicals to healthy cells. In early stages, however, cancer cells don’t migrate far enough to reach healthy cells because the tumor’s surrounding tissue is made up of dense fibers, called the extracellular matrix (ECM). The question remains, how do CAF-promot-
