The Tumour Tango: Unravelling the intricate dance of cancer and its microenvironment

This talk will describe groundbreaking research that has revealed the multifaceted nature of fibroblasts: from generating the key components of expensive skincare regimens to protectively shielding cancers from detection and treatment. Fibroblasts have been underestimated by researchers for many years, dismissing them as mere ‘support staff’ for ‘fame hungry’ effector cells. However, recent discoveries have unveiled that fibroblasts play a critical role in orchestrating a host of essential bodily functions and may hold the key to improving treatments for multiple diseases. Come and help give these cells some long overdue limelight.

Tumours rapidly outgrow their blood supply, resulting in low levels of oxygen (hypoxia) and nutrients within their core. To survive this hostile environment, tumours activate survival pathways that allow them to persist, more effectively compete for nutrients, and inhibit immune responses. These effects reduce both the ability of the immune system to control tumours and the effectiveness of therapies. Our research aspires to first understand and then overcome these effects. We aim to inhibit hypoxia-induced survival pathways, normalise abnormal tumour vasculature, and re-invigorate anti-tumour immune responses to complement and improve outcomes associated with current therapeutics.

Around 8% of breast cancer cases are caused by being overweight or obese in the UK. However, we still don’t fully understand how obesity affects breast cancer development or growth and this is in part due to a lack of suitable lab-based models of breast cancer. Therefore, the aim of my PhD project is to develop a novel 3D cell culture model that replicates the cellular architecture seen in obese breast cancer patients. This model provides a useful tool to investigate the communications between breast cancer cells and adipose, and to test potential treatments.