Article abstract
Nature Medicine 13, 1211 - 1218 (2007)
Published online: 30 September 2007 | doi:10.1038/nm1649
Mast cells are required for angiogenesis and macroscopic expansion of Myc-induced pancreatic islet tumors
Laura Soucek1, Elizabeth R Lawlor1,3, Darya Soto2, Ksenya Shchors1, Lamorna Brown Swigart1 & Gerard I Evan1
Abstract
An association between inflammation and cancer has long been recognized, but the cause and effect relationship linking the two remains unclear. Myc is a pleiotropic transcription factor that is overexpressed in many human cancers and instructs many extracellular aspects of the tumor tissue phenotype, including remodeling of tumor stroma and angiogenesis. Here we show in a 
-cell tumor model that activation of Myc in vivo triggers rapid recruitment of mast cells to the tumor site—a recruitment that is absolutely required for macroscopic tumor expansion. In addition, treatment of established -cell tumors with a mast cell inhibitor rapidly triggers hypoxia and cell death of tumor and endothelial cells. Inhibitors of mast cell function may therefore prove therapeutically useful in restraining expansion and survival of pancreatic and other cancers.
- Cancer Research Institute and Departments of Pathology, Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology, University of California San Francisco, 2340 Sutter Street, San Francisco, California 94143-0875, USA.
- Department of Medicine, Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of California San Francisco, 2340 Sutter Street, San Francisco, California 94143-0875, USA.
- Present address: Division of Hematology-Oncology, Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California 90027, USA.
Correspondence to: Gerard I Evan1 e-mail: gevan@cc.ucsf.edu
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