Tumors Steal Energy From Nearby Nerves - (Read the simplified version)

The Study

Scientists have long known that most cancers contain a dense network of nerves. Cancer cells secrete molecules called neurotropic factors to attract nerve growth. They do this to help themselves grow, survive, and move to other sites in the body by evading the immune system. To accomplish all these tasks, cancer cells require a lot of energy, and they are constantly seeking ways to boost their energy production.

A new study revealed that cancer cells use nearby nerves to boost their energy.¹ They do this by stealing their energy-producing structures, called mitochondria, and transporting them through special tube-like structures. Cancer cells were even able to use these stolen goods to fuel their growth and promote their migration to other parts of the body- a process called metastasis.

Fig 1: Tumors Steal Energy From Nearby Nerves

Caught in the Act

Scientists developed cool techniques to confirm that cancer cells indeed steal mitochondria from nerve cells or neurons. Similar to how we track our food delivery person to monitor our orders from the restaurant to our doorstep, scientists used a fluorescent tag to label neuronal mitochondria. They then placed these nerve cells with cancer cells in a dish and carefully observed the movement of fluorescent mitochondria.

They observed that cancer cells formed tiny tube-like structures when they were in close contact with neurons. These tube-like structures, much like the delivery vehicle, helped move neuronal mitochondria into the cancer cells.

Powering Through

Mitochondria are cellular structures that produce energy to ensure the cell's survival and promote growth. Scientists were curious to see if cancer cells use the stolen neuronal mitochondria to fuel their energy needs. By combining defective (unhealthy) tumor cells with neurons, scientists observed that tumor cells that had stolen neuronal mitochondria became healthier again. This confirmed that tumors not only stole energy packets from surrounding neurons, but also used them to fuel their own energy needs and revive their health.

Charged Cancer Cell Ready for a Trip

With the new power boost, cancer cells became stronger and much more efficient at moving to other parts of the body and evading the immune system. To track the movement of these supercharged tumors, scientists developed a more advanced labeling tool called Mito-TRACER. Using this method, scientists could color-code cells and, more importantly, distinguish between those cancer cells that received mitochondria from neurons and those that did not.

Regular tumor cells were labelled with a red tag, but tumor cells that received mitochondria from neurons switched from red to green. By locating the green cells, scientists could identify the supercharged tumor cells. This mapping revealed that supercharged tumor cells rarely stayed near the nerves but often moved to distant regions, such as the lung, liver, and brain in mice.

Conclusion

This was the first study to reveal that tumors interact with nerves to fuel their energy needs. They use this extra energy to grow, divide, evade the immune system, and move to other areas. This worsens tumor progression and can be harmful to human health.

However, this opens up a new way to stop tumors from growing - by targeting their new energy supplier in town - the nerves!

References

1.          Hoover, G. et al. Nerve-to-cancer transfer of mitochondria during cancer metastasis. Nature 1–11 (2025) doi:10.1038/s41586-025-09176-8.