Study Finds 189 Young-Onset Colon Tumors Resist Treatment Through Stromal Cells and RNA Signals
Updated
Updated · Livescience.com · Oct 29
Study Finds 189 Young-Onset Colon Tumors Resist Treatment Through Stromal Cells and RNA Signals
3 articles · Updated · Livescience.com · Oct 29
Summary
A Nature Medicine study comparing 189 colorectal tumors found cancers in patients under 50 carry distinct features that may explain why they are more aggressive and harder to treat.
Fifty-four younger patients' tumors contained a higher share of connective, or stromal, cells than malignant cells, unlike older patients' tumors, suggesting a tumor environment that shields cancer from immune attack and blocks chemotherapy.
Gene-activity patterns also pointed to altered cell-to-cell communication in younger patients' cancer cells, a signature linked in other cancers to easier spread through the body.
Researchers also detected abundant long noncoding RNA in the tumors and are now manipulating those molecules in lab-grown cells, opening a new line of research as colorectal cancer has risen in people under 50 since the mid-1990s.