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Discovery of oncogenes and tumor-suppressor genes has focused cancer therapeutics on the biochemistry of tumor cells. Yet, tumors grow in vivo surrounded by a microenvironment that contains noncancerous cells — which could be engaged in a “biochemical discussion” with the growing tumor.
A team from two biotechnology companies implanted various human tumors into mice and studied the biochemistry of stromal cells — blood vessels, epithelial cells, fibroblasts, and immune cells — in the tumors’ microenvironments. They found that a cell-signaling pathway called hedgehog (Hh), which is activated in some human tumor cells, also was activated in the noncancerous stromal cells that surrounded the tumors. Blocking the Hh signaling pathway in these st…