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What do breast cancer cells feel inside the tumour?

New technique may lead to early and improved cancer detection and mapping

Using a new technique,Ģżresearchers from the GCRC'sĢżDr Luke McCaffrey lab alongside Dr Chris Moraes'ĢżlabĢż(Ā鶹AVā€™s Department of Chemical Engineering), haveĢżfound tiny and previously undetectable ā€˜hot spotsā€™ of extremely high stiffness inside aggressive and invasive breast cancer tumours. Their findings suggest, for the first time, that only very tiny regions of a tumor need to stiffen for metastasis to take place. Though still in its infancy, the researchers believe that their technique may prove useful in detecting and mapping the progression of aggressive cancers.

ā€œWe are now able to see these features because our approach allows us to take measurements within living, intact, 3D tissues,ā€ says Dr. Chris Moraes. ā€œWhen tissue samples are disrupted in any way, as is normally required with standard techniques, signs of these ā€˜hot spotsā€™ are eliminated.ā€

ā€œSmartā€ hydrogels provide information about cancer progression

The researchers built tiny hydrogel sensors that can expand on demand, much like inflating balloons the size of individual cells, and placed them inside 3D cultures and mouse models of breast cancer. When triggered, the expansion of the hydrogel can be used to measure very local stiffness inside the tumour.
This unusual technique, developed through a collaboration between Ā鶹AVā€™s Department of Chemical Engineering and the Rosalind and Morris Goodman Cancer Research Centre at Ā鶹AV, allows the researchers to sense, from the perspective of a cancer cell, what is going on in their surrounding environment.

What cells sense drives their behaviour

ā€œHuman cells are not static. They grab and pull on the tissue around them, checking out how rigid or soft their surroundings are. What cells feel around them typically drives their behaviour: immune cells can activate, stem cells can become specialized, and cancer cells can become dangerously aggressive,ā€ explains Moraes. ā€œBreast cancer cells usually feel surroundings that are quite soft. However, we found that cancer cells inside aggressive tumours experienced much harder surroundings than previously expected, as hard as really old and dried up gummy bears.ā€

The researchers believe that their findings suggest new ways in which cell mechanics, even at the early stages of breast cancer, might affect disease progression.
ā€œDeveloping methods to analyze the mechanical profiles in 3D tissues may better predict patient risk and outcome,ā€ says Stephanie Mok, the first author on the paper and a PhD candidate in the Department of Chemical Engineering. ā€œWhether these ā€˜hot spotsā€™ of stiffness are really causing cancer progression rather than simply being correlated with it remains an open, but critically important question to resolve.ā€

Contact Information

Contact:ĢżKatherine Gombay

Organization:ĢżMedia Relations Office

Email:Ģżkatherine.gombay [at] mcgill.ca

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This article was adaptedĢżfrom Ā鶹AV's Newsroom channels

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