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Myeloma-bone marrow adipocyte axis in tumour survival and treatment response

British Journal of Cancer volume 125, pages 775–777 (2021)Cite this article

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Summary

Multiple myeloma is an incurable cancer of the bone marrow that is dependent on its microenvironment, including bone marrow adipocytes (BMAds). Here, we discuss our findings that the reciprocal interaction of myeloma cells and BMAds, leads to myeloma cell survival and induces metabolic dysfunction and senescence-associated secretory phenotype in BMAds.

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Fig. 1: Overview of changes in BM adiposity during multiple myeloma development and the dynamic relationship between BMAds and myeloma cells.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Abbas Jafari

  2. Maine Medical Center Research Institute, Scarborough, ME, USA

    Heather Fairfield & Michaela R. Reagan

  3. School of Medicine, Tufts University, Boston, MA, USA

    Heather Fairfield & Michaela R. Reagan

  4. Graduate School of Biomedical Science and Engineering, University of Maine, Orono, ME, USA

    Heather Fairfield & Michaela R. Reagan

  5. Clinical Cell Biology, Department of Pathology, Odense University Hospital—Department of Clinical Research, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark

    Thomas L. Andersen

  6. Department of Forensic Medicine, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark

    Thomas L. Andersen

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  1. Abbas Jafari
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  2. Heather Fairfield
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  3. Thomas L. Andersen
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  4. Michaela R. Reagan
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Contributions

M.R.R. wrote the first draft of this commentary and T.L.A. created the first draft of the figure. All authors have contributed to editing of this manuscript text and figure.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Abbas Jafari, Thomas L. Andersen or Michaela R. Reagan.

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Data availability

All results and patient data referenced in this study have been included in the manuscript described by this commentary.

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests. The Reagan lab receives support from Oncopeptides to conduct research not related to this publication.

Funding information

T.L.A. had received funding from the Region of Southern Denmark (20/14282). M.R.R. had received funding from the American Cancer Society (Research Grant #RSG-19-037-01-LIB), the NIH (U54GM115516, R01AR049069, R37CA245330, and P20GM121301) and the Kane Foundation.

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Jafari, A., Fairfield, H., Andersen, T.L. et al. Myeloma-bone marrow adipocyte axis in tumour survival and treatment response. Br J Cancer 125, 775–777 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41416-021-01371-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41416-021-01371-4

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