A new study in the Journal of Clinical Investigation indicates that mesothelial cells actively promote the spread of ovarian cancer.
Using a three dimensional culture model of ovarian cancer metastasis, OCRF grantee and Scientific Advisory Committee Member Ernst Lengyel, MD, PhD, and colleagues at the Unviersity of Chicago found that in the presence of cancer cells, mesothelial cells secrete a protein, fibronectin. Fibronectin attracted ovarian cancer cells and encouraged cancer cell binding.
This research was funded in part by an OCRF Program Project Development Grant to Ernst Lengyel.
