The Cancer Neuroscience of Brain Metastases
Brain metastases remain one of the most devastating complications of cancer, and recent work has revealed that the brain's own neural architecture plays an active role in shaping how these tumors take hold and progress. Our research sits at the interface of neuroscience and oncology, asking how metastatic cancer cells exploit, communicate within, and even mimic neural networks once they reach the brain.
Using advanced intravital two-photon microscopy, the Karreman team tracks individual cancer cells in real time, from their arrest in brain microvessels through to the formation of macrometastases. This work has uncovered that metastatic cells from breast cancer, lung cancer, and melanoma can form coordinated, gap-junction-connected networks in the brain, a cancer-intrinsic adaptation of neural communication that drives tumor growth and resistance to treatment.
By combining in vivo imaging, correlative light and electron microscopy, and clinical specimens, the team aims to identify the cellular and molecular mechanisms that allow cancer cells to cross the blood-brain barrier, seed early metastatic niches, and interact with their neural microenvironment, work that is opening new avenues for preventative and therapeutic strategies against brain metastasis.