Researchers at the MDC observe the very early stages of blood vessel development in lymph node tumors. The findings published in Cancer Research suggest a potential treatment target to slow lymphoma tumor growth.
Creating new blood vessels, a process called angiogenesis, for tumors in lymph nodes is different than for tumors in other parts of the body, such as the colon or lung, a team from the Max Delbrueck Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association (MDC) reports in the journal Cancer Research. Scientists from the MDC labs of Dr. Armin Rehm, Dr. Uta Höpken and Professor Holger Gerhardt were involved in this project. The team identifies potentially more effective treatment targets to slow tumor growth for lymphoma patients.
Lymphoma is cancer of the lymphatic system, which includes the lymph nodes, spleen and bone marrow. Lymphoma patients with indicators of increased blood vessel development usually have lower chances of survival. They also don’t respond well to treatments that have successfully inhibited blood vessel development in other cancer types.
“We hypothesized that tumors in lymph nodes are completely different from solid tumors because the lymph nodes provide such a supportive microenvironment for blood borne tumor cells,” said Dr. Uta Höpken, who heads MDC’s Microenvironmental Regulation in Autoimmunity and Cancer Lab. Still, it was “absolutely surprising that none of the usual suspects were involved,” said Dr. Armin Rehm, who leads MDC’s Translational Tumorimmunology Lab.
Image credit: MDC