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Neuronal transfer of mitochondria to tumour cells promotes cancer spread

Neurons often receive organelles called mitochondria from other cells. It emerges that neurons donate mitochondria that support cancer-cell spread.
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  1. Anand K. Singh

    1. Anand K. Singh is in the Department of Symptom Research, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas 77030, USA.

  2. Yuan Pan

    1. Yuan Pan is in the Department of Symptom Research, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas 77030, USA, and in the Department of Neuro-Oncology, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

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Neurons can support cancer initiation, growth and migration and can drive therapy resistance through various mechanisms, such as immune-cell modulation1. Such discoveries underpin the emerging field of cancer neuroscience. Much research has been done to understand the interplay between cancer cells and neurons and how cancer cells can exploit neuronal signalling to support malignancy. Writing in Nature, Hoover et al.2 reveal a previously unknown role for tumour-associated neurons in aiding tumour spread.

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Nature 644, 46-47 (2025)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-025-01718-4

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Competing Interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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