| First Author | Barravecchia I | Year | 2024 |
| Journal | Mol Cancer Res | Volume | 22 |
| Issue | 3 | Pages | 295-307 |
| PubMed ID | 38015750 | Mgi Jnum | J:345830 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:7611953 | Doi | 10.1158/1541-7786.MCR-23-0480 |
| Citation | Barravecchia I, et al. (2024) Modeling Molecular Pathogenesis of Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis-Associated Lung Cancer in Mice. Mol Cancer Res 22(3):295-307 |
| abstractText | Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is characterized by progressive, often fatal loss of lung function due to overactive collagen production and tissue scarring. Patients with IPF have a sevenfold-increased risk of developing lung cancer. The COVID-19 pandemic has increased the number of patients with lung diseases, and infection can worsen prognoses for those with chronic lung diseases and disease-associated cancer. Understanding the molecular pathogenesis of IPF-associated lung cancer is imperative for identifying diagnostic biomarkers and targeted therapies that will facilitate prevention of IPF and progression to lung cancer. To understand how IPF-associated fibroblast activation, matrix remodeling, epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT), and immune modulation influences lung cancer predisposition, we developed a mouse model to recapitulate the molecular pathogenesis of pulmonary fibrosis-associated lung cancer using the bleomycin and Lewis lung carcinoma models. We demonstrate that development of pulmonary fibrosis-associated lung cancer is likely linked to increased abundance of tumor-associated macrophages and a unique gene signature that supports an immune-suppressive microenvironment through secreted factors. Not surprisingly, preexisting fibrosis provides a pre-metastatic niche and results in augmented tumor growth, and tumors associated with bleomycin-induced fibrosis are characterized by a dramatic loss of cytokeratin expression, indicative of EMT. IMPLICATIONS: This characterization of tumors associated with lung diseases provides new therapeutic targets that may aid in the development of treatment paradigms for lung cancer patients with preexisting pulmonary diseases. |
