Dr. TAN Nguan Soon Andrew
Associate Professor, School of Biological Sciences
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Date: Mon, 10-April-2017
Time: 11:00 AM
Venue: Seminar Room 4, G/F Laboratory Block, 
21 Sassoon Road, Pokfulam, Hong Kong

Summary:

Field cancerization is of major clinical significance. The term describes the development of abnormal epithelia and stroma bordering a tumorigenic area, resulting in multifocal primary tumors, which involves a higher chance of recurrence even after surgical resection of malignant tumors. Genetic anomalies have been well described as the driving force behind malignant epithelia, but the mediators of field cancerization by the stroma, particularly Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs), remain poorly understood. Our recent work revealed that CAFs achieve field cancerization by promoting extratumoral oxidative stress. Of importance, this finding confirms the presence of stromal-mediated field cancerization, where the effects of stromal oxidative stress can be propagated and amplified and effectively create an "oncogenic/mutagenic" field promoting multifocal tumor formation. Field cancerization and metastasis are often discussed separately. We propose that these two events need not be independent of each other, but rather occur as temporally continuous and overlapping events.

ALL ARE WELCOME