Stanford University School of Medicine
The Robert G. Fenley Writing Awards: Basic Science Staff Writing
Bronze
Cancer cells hijack normal neurologic processes — including electrical impulses by which nerves communicate and chemical signals that enable brain plasticity and learning — to fuel their malignant growth. These startling discoveries, made in the last decade at Stanford Medicine, form the foundation for a new branch of basic science, cancer neuroscience.
Led by pediatric neurooncologist Michelle Monje, MD, PhD, researchers in this field are uncovering molecular details of how tumors tap normal functions of the nervous system.
The work greatly expands our knowledge of how certain intractable brain cancers grow. Understanding their biological machinery may help us identify new drug targets for these deadly tumors.
The entry is an article by Erin Digitale that was intended to introduce readers to the strange but intriguing concept that cancers can wire themselves into our nervous systems; to position Stanford Medicine as the leader in this new field; and to offer hope for treatment of tumors that are usually lethal.
What was the most impactful part of your entry?
I wanted this story to have not just scientific but also emotional resonance. In interviews, I pushed the scientists to reflect on the larger meaning of their discoveries.
One big question I had was why the neuroscience of cancer went unrecognized through decades of cancer research, launching only in the mid-2010s. In response, scientist Kathryn Taylor gave an answer that gets at our human fallibility as observers of the natural world:
“People tend to think of cancer as more like an infectious disease, something that’s occurring but has nothing really to do with our body,” said Kathryn Taylor, PhD, lead author of the Nature study and a postdoctoral scholar in neurology and neurological sciences. “Whereas really, particularly in pediatric tumors, it’s a developmental disease.”
I also wanted to show readers how the scientists think about tumors’ ability to take advantage of biological processes that form the core of how our minds work. Again, Taylor was great:
It’s unsettling that tumors use brain activity to grow, Taylor admits. “It’s the same electrical activity that helps us think, move, feel, touch and see,” she said. “Cancer is plugging into that and using that to grow, invade and even occur in the first place.”
What challenge did you overcome?
When I first read the Nature paper that forms the basis for this story, I worried that its findings were too esoteric to engage lay readers or the media, since the study describes basic research about how tumors interact with a specific signaling protein in the brain. Also, I had written news releases about 2015 and 2017 studies from the Monje lab on similar findings about a different brain protein. I was concerned about duplicating that coverage.
I talked with Dr. Monje, who pointed out that although we had publicized her team’s individual discoveries, we hadn’t told the story of cancer neuroscience as a new, Stanford-founded branch of oncology research. Thanks to that conversation, I expanded the story idea from “explain how brain-derived neurotrophic factor signals in tumors” to “explain what cancer neuroscience is and why it’s important.”
I found that taking this wide-angle view enabled me to tell a more interesting, human-focused story that is accessible to a broad audience. The additional context proved attractive to journalists, as evidenced by the media coverage we received over the next several months.
Contact:
Alison Peterson
medawards@stanford.edu