title: Orchestration of the crosstalk between astrocytes and cancer cells affects the treatment and prognosis of lung cancer sufferers with brain metastasis.
abstract: Brain metastasis is an inauspicious consequence of lung cancer. However, the majority of cancer cells that seep into the brain died of unknown causes, only a few survived and developed into metastatic brain tumor. Communication between cancer cells and host tissue is viewed as an essential event during metastasis, but little is known about the accurate control of this processes. Within the lesion of brain metastasis, abundant activated astrocytes are observed with lung cancer cells. Previous studies have demonstrated that the astrocyte network served a protective role in the central nervous system (CNS) and most malignant cells that seep into the brain perish were rejected by astrocytes. Reactive astrocytes generated protease plasmin and cytotoxic cytokines as a defense against metastatic invasion. But recently, other investigators argued that tumor cells interactions with astrocytes promote the progression of brain metastases and protect them from the cytotoxic effects of chemotherapy. In this article, we review the architecture between astrocytes and infiltrated cancer cells, and raise a future perspective on therapeutic potential of targeting crosstalk modulators against brain metastasis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Respiratory & Critical Care Medicine, the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210029, China;; Department of Radiation Oncology, the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210029, China.
authors.forename: Wangshu
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Dai
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210029, China.
authors.forename: Hongcheng
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: Department of Respiratory & Critical Care Medicine, the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210029, China;; Department of Radiation Oncology, the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210029, China.
authors.forename: Guangzong
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Respiratory & Critical Care Medicine, the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210029, China.
authors.forename: Hao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Gu
authors.affiliation: Department of Geratology, Jiangsu Jiangyin People's Hospital, Jiangyin 214400, China.
authors.forename: Yihang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Gu
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210029, China.
authors.forename: Xinchen
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: Department of Respiratory & Critical Care Medicine, the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210029, China.
authors.forename: Xiaoning
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zeng
keywords: Brain metastasis; astrocytes; chemoresistance; lung cancer