ABSTRACT
The nervous system plays an important role in cancer initiation and progression. Accumulated evidences clearly show that the sympathetic nervous system exerts stimulatory effects on carcinogenesis and cancer growth. However, the role of the parasympathetic nervous system in cancer has been much less elucidated. Whereas retrospective studies in vagotomized patients and experiments employing vagotomized animals indicate the parasympathetic nervous system has an inhibitory effect on cancer, clinical studies in patients with prostate cancer indicate it has stimulatory effects. Therefore, the aim of this paper is a critical evaluation of the available data related to the role of the parasympathetic nervous system in cancer (AU)
Subject(s)
Humans , Animals , Male , Mice , Rats , Disease Progression , Neoplasms/etiology , Parasympathetic Nervous System/physiology , Cholinergic Neurons/physiology , Heart Rate/physiology , Prostatic Neoplasms/etiology , Retrospective Studies , Sympathetic Nervous System/physiology , Vagotomy/adverse effects , Vagotomy/methodsABSTRACT
The nervous system plays an important role in cancer initiation and progression. Accumulated evidences clearly show that the sympathetic nervous system exerts stimulatory effects on carcinogenesis and cancer growth. However, the role of the parasympathetic nervous system in cancer has been much less elucidated. Whereas retrospective studies in vagotomized patients and experiments employing vagotomized animals indicate the parasympathetic nervous system has an inhibitory effect on cancer, clinical studies in patients with prostate cancer indicate it has stimulatory effects. Therefore, the aim of this paper is a critical evaluation of the available data related to the role of the parasympathetic nervous system in cancer.
Subject(s)
Disease Progression , Neoplasms/etiology , Parasympathetic Nervous System/physiology , Animals , Cholinergic Neurons/physiology , Dogs , Heart Rate/physiology , Humans , Male , Mice , Prostatic Neoplasms/etiology , Rats , Retrospective Studies , Sympathetic Nervous System/physiology , Vagotomy/adverse effects , Vagotomy/methods , Vagus Nerve/physiologyABSTRACT
Preclinical data have shown that neurotransmitters released in peripheral tissues from nerve endings may influence carcinogenesis, affect the tumor microenvironment, and directly potentiate both proliferation and migration of cancer cells. This stimulatory role of the nervous system in cancer initiation and progression has also been documented by clinical studies investigating the effect of attenuated signaling from nerves innervating cancer tissue. However, compared to preclinical studies, clinical studies are rarer and some of them have ambiguous results. In this retrospective analysis, to assess the effect of the nervous system on cancer, we analyzed published clinical studies investigating the incidence of cancer in patients with spinal cord injury or pheochromocytoma. Our findings support a concept of the neurobiology of cancer based on the assumption that the nervous system affects cancer initiation and progression (Ref. 60). Keywords: cancer, neurobiology of cancer, norepinephrine, sympathetic nervous system, spinal cord injury, pheochromocytoma.
