Age-related changes drive breast cancer progression
Sheila Stewart
Associate Director. Siteman Cancer Center (Washington, USA)
Theatre room, CiMUS
About
Age is the single largest risk factor for the development of cancer, but how age impacts the molecular mechanisms that drive cancer remain poorly understood. While it is clear that age-related accumulation of cell autonomous mutations contributes to tumorigenesis, the central role age-related changes in the tumor microenvironment play in the transformation process is becoming more fully appreciated. Underscoring the importance of an aged microenvironment in cancer development are findings that senescent fibroblasts, which accumulate with age, directly stimulate preneoplastic and neoplastic cell growth and tumor progression. Investigations into how senescent fibroblasts promote tumorigenesis revealed that they express a plethora of growth factors, extracellular matrix remodeling enzymes, chemokines, and cytokines collectively referred to as the senescence associated secretory phenotype (SASP). We find that a subset of senescent cancer associated fibroblasts (senCAFs) limit NK cell killing, increasing tumorigenesis. Chemotherapy similarly induces senescence in tissue specific cell types that negatively impact a patients quality of life. We will discuss how these changes impact tumor progression and therapy-induced bone loss.
Bio
Dr. Stewart is a Professor in the Department of Cell Biology and Physiology and Medicine at Washington University in St. Louis and is the Associate Director for Basic Science at the Siteman Cancer Center. She received her Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology from UCLA in 1997 and completed her postdoctoral fellowship in Cancer Biology at the Whitehead Institute at MIT in Robert Weinberg’s laboratory. Dr. Stewart was an American Cancer Society Scholar and her research is focused on understanding how age-related changes in the tumor microenvironment impact tumorigenesis.
Hosted by Manuel Collado. Cell senescence, cancer and aging group, CiMUS
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