Breast cancer-induced bone remodeling, skeletal pain, and sprouting of sensory nerve fibers.

Unlabelled: Breast cancer metastasis to bone is frequently accompanied by pain. What remains unclear is why this pain tends to become more severe and difficult to control with disease progression. Here we test the hypothesis that with disease progression, sensory nerve fibers that innervate the breast cancer bearing bone undergo a pathological sprouting and reorganization, which in other nonmalignant pathologies has been shown to generate and maintain chronic pain.

Pathological sprouting of adult nociceptors in chronic prostate cancer-induced bone pain.

Pain frequently accompanies cancer. What remains unclear is why this pain frequently becomes more severe and difficult to control with disease progression. Here we test the hypothesis that with disease progression, sensory nerve fibers that innervate the tumor-bearing tissue undergo a pathological sprouting and reorganization, which in other nonmalignant pathologies has been shown to generate and maintain chronic pain.