ArticleBrain, behavior, and immunity2012
Chronic stress enhances progression of acute lymphoblastic leukemia via β-adrenergic signaling.
Article in Brain, behavior, and immunity, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 87 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
87 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 131 citations in OpenAlex.
- Beta-blocker use and survival outcomes in colorectal cancer patients: A systematic review and meta-analysis.The Journal of international medical research · 2025Pooled it
- Rap1A, Rap1B, and β-Adrenergic Signaling in Autologous HCT: A Randomized Controlled Trial of Propranolol.The Yale journal of biology and medicine · 2022Trial
- Propranolol inhibits molecular risk markers in HCT recipients: a phase 2 randomized controlled biomarker trial.Blood advances · 2020Trial
- Cells, cytokines, chemokines, and cancer stress: A biobehavioral study of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia.Cancer · 2018Trial
- Trial
- Cancer neuroscience: signaling pathways and new therapeutic strategies for cancer.Signal transduction and targeted therapy · 2026Review
- Allostatic load, personality traits, and cancer risk: A prospective cohort study.Psychological medicine · 2026Article
- Pancreatic cancer: molecular pathogenesis and emerging therapeutic strategies.Signal transduction and targeted therapy · 2026Review
- Psychological distress as a putative host-state determinant of cancer immunotherapy response.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Review
- Neuro-immune interactions in cancer: mechanisms and therapeutic prospects.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Review
- Gut Microbiota-Driven Pathways Linking Chronic Stress to Tumor Progression.International journal of biological sciences · 2026Review
- Norepinephrine Induces Sertoli Cell Ferroptosis via Receptors Desensitization Causing Stress-Related Male Reproductive Dysfunction.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2025Article
- Association of hydralazine use with risk of hematologic neoplasms in patients with hypertension: A nationwide population-based cohort study in Taiwan.PLoS medicine · 2025Article
- Chronic stress: a fourth etiology in tumorigenesis?Molecular cancer · 2025Review
- The Impact of Beta Blockers on Survival in Cancer Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Cancers · 2025Review
- Stress and Obesity Signaling Converge on CREB Phosphorylation to Promote Pancreatic Cancer.Molecular cancer research : MCR · 2025Article
- Neuroscience of cancer: unraveling the complex interplay between the nervous system, the tumor and the tumor immune microenvironment.Molecular cancer · 2025Review
- Inside the Biology of the β3-Adrenoceptor.Biomolecules · 2024Review
- β-Adrenoceptors in Cancer: Old Players and New Perspectives.Handbook of experimental pharmacology · 2024Review
- The sympathetic nervous system shapes the tumor microenvironment to impair chemotherapy response.Frontiers in oncology · 2024Review
27 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Clinical studies suggest that stress-related biobehavioral factors can accelerate the progression of hematopoietic cancers such as acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), but it is unclear whether such effects are causal or what biological pathways mediate such effects. Given the network of sympathetic nervous system (SNS) fibers that innervates the bone marrow to regulate normal (non-leukemic) hematopoietic progenitor cells, we tested the possibility that stress-induced SNS signaling might also affect ALL progression. In an orthotopic mouse model, Nalm-6 human pre-B ALL cells were transduced with the luciferase gene for longitudinal bioluminescent imaging and injected i.v. into male SCID mice for bone marrow engraftment. Two weeks of daily restraint stress significantly enhanced ALL tumor burden and dissemination in comparison to controls, and this effect was blocked by the β-adrenergic antagonist, propranolol. Although Nalm-6 ALL cells expressed mRNA for β1- and β3-adrenergic receptors, they showed no evidence of cAMP signaling in response to norepinephrine, and norepinephrine failed to enhance Nalm-6 proliferation in vitro. These results show that chronic stress can accelerate the progression of human pre-B ALL tumor load via a β-adrenergic signaling pathway that likely involves indirect regulation of ALL biology via alterations in the function of other host cell types such as immune cells or the bone marrow microenvironment.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.