The development of nerve fibres may encourage prostate cancer to grow and spread. Claire Magnon and Paul Frenette at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City and their colleagues used a battery of genetic, pharmacological and surgical techniques to disrupt specific interactions between nerves and tumours in a mouse model of prostate cancer. One type of nerve fibre promoted tumour growth through the neurotransmitter noradrenaline. Another type made cancer more invasive by releasing the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. An analysis of 43 human prostate-cancer samples found that more aggressive disease was correlated with more nerve fibres.

Interventions that block the growth of nerve tissue could provide a way to stall prostate cancer, the researchers suggest.

Science 341, 1236361 (2013)