Identifying mechanisms healthy tissues use to limit tumor growth may open new pathways for therapeutic benefit

The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) held their annual meeting in San Diego, CA from April 17-22, 2026. The AACR Annual Meeting gathers cancer researchers from around the world to share and discuss, not just clinical results, but also the basic and translational research that fuels new therapeutic innovations. Mara Sherman, PhD, an Associate Member of Cancer Biology & Genetics at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), a 2017 Seed Grant Awardee and recent addition to the Hirshberg Foundation’s Scientific Advisory Board, showcased her lab’s research on how cells in a healthy pancreas suppress tumor development in a presentation entitled Identifying stromal barriers to pancreatic tumorigenesis.  

Dr. Sherman’s research focuses on how inflammatory non-tumor cells found in the tumor microenvironment support and aid in tumor growth and progression to potentially target these mechanisms for therapy. One focus of her lab is pancreatic stellate cells (PCSs), a type of stromal cells found in the pancreas. Her previously published work found that when PSCs become activated they regulate and nourish cancer cells to promote tumor growth and progression. Activated PSCs in the tumor microenvironment secrete factors that tumor cells can for growth and survival that can potentially be targeted therapeutically.

Her lab’s more recent research has turned the focus on PSCs in healthy pancreas to identify mechanisms they use to suppress cancer development. A May 2025 publication from her lab demonstrated that in healthy pancreas, PSCs secrete a protein called KITL. In pancreatic tumor models where KITL was genetically deleted, tumors grew earlier than in models with KITL expression and overall survival time was reduced. This work demonstrates the expression of KITL by PSCs is one mechanism by which cells in healthy pancreas are barriers to tumor initiation and progression and identifies a novel pathway for potential therapeutic benefit. Further investigation into other tumor suppressive mechanisms used by healthy tissues and how they break down during tumor initiation and progression may result in identifying other novel therapeutic pathways to explore.

See full publication in Cancer Discovery