Biomedical research once again opens a new path to better understand lung cancer. A study led by the University of Barcelona has identified why the two main types of this tumor respond differently to treatments that act on blood vessel formation. The work, published in the journal Cell Death & Disease, demonstrates that a large part of these differences depend on the tumor microenvironment and, especially, on the action of fibroblasts surrounding cancer cells. The finding could facilitate the development of more precise and personalized treatments, adapted to the specific characteristics of each patient and each tumor.
The first author of the study is Natalia Díaz Valdivia, a researcher at the University of Barcelona specializing in tumor biology and the cancer microenvironment. Her research is developed in collaboration with teams from the Institute of Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC), Hospital Clínic, CIBERES, and various international reference centers, including the Mayo Clinic and the Francis Crick Institute. This research is part of a new generation of studies that seek to understand not only cancer cells but also the entire environment that conditions their growth, their resistance to treatments, and their metastatic capacity, a field that is transforming precision oncology.