This is a sidebar to "Blocking bone cancer pain at the source," an article about the work of Cancer Center member Patrick Mantyh, Ph.D., one of the leading researchers in the United States on bone cancer pain.

Patrick Mantyh and his colleagues are conducting experiments to identify how different cancers cause pain. This information, depicted in the image on the right, can then be used to develop novel therapies to reduce each type of cancer pain. One target in prostate cancer-induced bone pain are astrocytes, shown in purple. Part of the supporting structure of nervous tissue, astrocytes are in the spinal cord and express endothelin receptors. Shown in yellow, endothelin receptors are part of the outer layer of cells. Mantyh's research indicates that prostate tumors express high levels of endothelin that may simulate the astrocytes and cause bone cancer pain.

Blocking numbness and pain to improve quality of life

The image below shows blood vessels (shown in green) and the cell body (shown in purple) of neurons that transmit sensory information from the skin to the brain. When chemotherapy is given to cancer patients to kill tumor cells, the therapy can also induce numbness and pain that can last from days to a lifetime. Mantyh and his colleagues are doing research to develop new therapies to block this numbness and pain, and subsequently improve the survival and quality of life for cancer patients.

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This article was originally published in the Masonic Cancer Center 2006 Annual Report (PDF).