Patrolling Tumor T Cells

When looking at tumor inside a person’s body, far more is occurring under the surface than is easily seen by the untrained eye, even at the cellular level.  While the prior blog considered how T cells are hindered by oxidized fats in the tumor, this work by Torcellan et al sought to understand the movement of immune cells in and out of tumors.  Using a florescent stain in mouse tumor cells, they determined that immune T cells left the tumor in greater numbers than other immune cells, presumably to search for distant tumor cells.  We call such distant spread of a tumor, metastases, which often lead to the worse morbidity and mortality in cancer.  If we can modify this tumor targeted search and destroy function of departing immune T cells, we might be able to improve survival rates of the more advanced metastatic cancers with less damage to the patient.

Original Article:

Tommaso Torcellan, Henry R. Hampton, Jacqueline Bailey, Michio Tomura, Robert Brink, Tatyana Chtanova. In vivo photolabeling of tumor-infiltrating cells reveals highly regulated egress of T-cell subsets from tumors. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2017; 201618446 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1618446114

Thanks to Science Daily:

Garvan Institute of Medical Research. “Tumor-trained T cells go on patrol: New insights may shape future immune therapies.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 15 May 2017. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/05/170515154817.htm>.