"How ovarian Cancer hijack blood cells in body?" is a common question among patients and doctors.
Dr. Abhishek Jain, Assistant Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, Anderson Cancer Center , has found the answer.
His team of researchers found that ovarian cancer tumors break the blood vessel barriers so that they can communicate with the blood cells, such as platelets. When these tumors come into contact with platelets, they can then metastasize, or begin to spread to other sites in the body.
The collaborative research was recently published in the journal Blood Advance.
What is Ovarian Cancer ?
It is a cancer that starts in the female organs that produce eggs (ovaries).
Ovarian cancer commonly remains undetected until it has spread within the pelvis and stomach women.There are almost negligible early symptoms.
At later stage, ovarian cancer is very difficult to treat and it becomes fatal.
Prevalence of Ovarian Cancer
As per a research article published in International Journal of Women Health by Zohre & others "Ovarian cancer is the seventh most common cancer among women....
In 2018, 4.4% of entire cancer-related mortality among women was attributed to ovarian cancer. Although the incidence of cancer is higher among high Human Development Index (HDI) countries..."
However, death due to lack of better treatment is higher in developing countries.
How ovarian Cancer spreads ?
It is known fact that platelets are one of the initiators of ovarian cancer metastasis. However,it was not known that how the platelets interact with tumor cells and become their victims.
To view this interaction Dr Jain's team designed a device named Organ-on-a-chip.
Organs-on-a-chip are microfluidic medical devices having size of a USB drive.
The team designed on the OvCa-Chip to give researchers an easier window to view the biological processes between tumors and platelets.
Viewing the interaction between tumors and blood vessels on the OvCa-Chip led the researchers to an extraordinary finding.
They saw that the tumor cells systematically broke down the endothelial cells, which are the barrier that lines the interior surface of blood vessels and prevents exterior interaction with blood cells.
Once this barrier was gone, blood cells and platelets entered the tumor microenvironment and could be used for metastasis.
How it will help in treatment of Ovarian Cancer ?
Harnessing this knowledge could change how clinicians approach ovarian cancer treatment, DrJain said, suggesting that anti-vascular drugs could be considered along with anticancer treatments.
A benefit of the organ-on-a-chip is that it can also test these novel drug treatments and drug combinations.
"How ovarian Cancer hijack blood cells in body?" is a common question among patients and doctors.
Dr. Abhishek Jain, Assistant Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, Anderson Cancer Center , has found the answer.
His team of researchers found that ovarian cancer tumors break the blood vessel barriers so that they can communicate with the blood cells, such as platelets. When these tumors come into contact with platelets, they can then metastasize, or begin to spread to other sites in the body.
The collaborative research was recently published in the journal Blood Advance.
What is Ovarian Cancer ?
It is a cancer that starts in the female organs that produce eggs (ovaries).
Ovarian cancer commonly remains undetected until it has spread within the pelvis and stomach women.There are almost negligible early symptoms.
At later stage, ovarian cancer is very difficult to treat and it becomes fatal.
Prevalence of Ovarian Cancer
As per a research article published in International Journal of Women Health by Zohre & others "Ovarian cancer is the seventh most common cancer among women....
In 2018, 4.4% of entire cancer-related mortality among women was attributed to ovarian cancer. Although the incidence of cancer is higher among high Human Development Index (HDI) countries..."
However, death due to lack of better treatment is higher in developing countries.
How ovarian Cancer spreads ?
It is known fact that platelets are one of the initiators of ovarian cancer metastasis. However,it was not known that how the platelets interact with tumor cells and become their victims.
To view this interaction Dr Jain's team designed a device named Organ-on-a-chip.
Organs-on-a-chip are microfluidic medical devices having size of a USB drive.
The team designed on the OvCa-Chip to give researchers an easier window to view the biological processes between tumors and platelets.
Viewing the interaction between tumors and blood vessels on the OvCa-Chip led the researchers to an extraordinary finding.
They saw that the tumor cells systematically broke down the endothelial cells, which are the barrier that lines the interior surface of blood vessels and prevents exterior interaction with blood cells.
Once this barrier was gone, blood cells and platelets entered the tumor microenvironment and could be used for metastasis.
How it will help in treatment of Ovarian Cancer ?
Harnessing this knowledge could change how clinicians approach ovarian cancer treatment, DrJain said, suggesting that anti-vascular drugs could be considered along with anticancer treatments.
A benefit of the organ-on-a-chip is that it can also test these novel drug treatments and drug combinations.
