Researchers report that sympathetic nerves—the body’s “fight or flight” system—play an important role in pancreatic cancer. The study shows that these nerves grow directly into tumors and communicate with cancer cells and surrounding fibroblasts, helping the tumor grow. Patients with higher levels of sympathetic nerve–related genes had worse survival.
In mouse models, removing these nerves reduced tumor size, but only in female mice. This suggests that sex hormones may strongly influence how nerves and pancreatic tumors interact. The pancreas is a gland that normally responds to nerve and hormonal signals, which may make it especially sensitive to stress-related signals during cancer development.
This research highlights the growing field of cancer neuroscience, which studies how nerves affect tumors. Future strategies may include testing beta-blocker drugs, commonly used for heart disease, to reduce stress signaling, or exploring nerve-stimulation devices to disrupt the supportive signals tumors receive.