Autonomic Nervous System Activity and the Implications in Breast Cancer Metastasis
Abstract
The autonomic nervous system is comprised of two branches, more commonly known as the fight orflight sympathetic branch and the rest and digest parasympathetic branch, that both send and receiveinformation from the brain. These two branches communicate with every organ in the body and areresponsible for maintaining proper organ function. It was once believed that breast tumors did not containthese nerves. However, a recent study with human breast tumors found nerves do exist but only in malignanttumor types and not benign tumors. More interesting, it was observed that greater malignant tumor gradeshad greater number of nerves found within the tumor. Research using tumor-bearing animals has shown thatincreasing and decreasing the activity of these two nerve branches with surgical or chemical means has aneffect on tumor growth and metastasis. However, none of these research studies directly measured the neuralactivity to ascertain the degree to which the neural activity changes effect tumor growth and metastasis.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 2020
- Accession Number
- AD1118291
Entities
People
- Dominique M Durand
- Efstathios Karathanasis
- Grant A. McCallum
- Jennifer Yu
Organizations
- Case Western Reserve University