Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 7 July 2026 · From issue 03
Support cells in the brain first resist a tumor, then get killed, letting it grow fast.
Marco Gualtieri, Saline Jabre et al., Cell competition overcomes host tissue resistance to unleash tumor growth in a Drosophila brain cancer model, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
A brain tumor and its surrounding support cells go through two very different stages of battle, a new study in fruit flies shows. Scientists used flies with a tumor made from stem cells. This tumor grows inside a web of support cells in the brain. At first, the support cells fight the tumor and slow it down. A protective signal inside the cells helps them resist. Later, the tumor cells attack and kill off the support cells. Once the support cells die, the tumor grows much faster. But this growth does not last. The support tissue eventually collapses, and that stops the tumor from growing more.
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