Rhian Stewart
Research Mentor: Erika Newman
Mentor Department: Pediatric Surgery, Medicine
Author(s): Sahiti Chukkapalli, Rhian Stewart
Session: Session 1 (9:00 AM – 9:50 AM)
Presentation Type: Poster 105
Abstract
Neuroblastoma is a pediatric solid tumor arising from the developing sympathetic nervous system and remains a leading cause of cancer-related mortality in children. Despite intensive multimodality therapies, including chemotherapy, surgery, radiation, and immunotherapy, outcomes for high-risk neuroblastoma remain poor, with five-year survival rates below 40%. This underscores the need to identify novel biological and environmental factors that contribute to tumor progression and therapeutic resistance. Recent studies suggest that social and environmental stressors can significantly influence cancer biology. Our laboratory has demonstrated that social stressors, such as food insecurity and dietary stress, accelerate neuroblastoma tumor growth in preclinical models. Building on these findings, the current project aims to investigate how social stressors promote tumor immune evasion and disease progression. To address this, 9464D murine neuroblastoma cells will be injected into syngeneic C57BL/6 mice. Following tumor establishment, mice will be exposed to a high-fat diet, food insecurity, or standard chow conditions. Upon reaching tumor endpoints, tumors will be harvested for differential gene expression analysis to identify stress-responsive pathways involved in neuroblastoma progression. Additionally, systemic immune modulation will be assessed by analyzing splenic immune cell populations. Together, these studies will provide mechanistic insight into how social stressors alter tumor–immune interactions and may reveal new therapeutic targets to improve outcomes in high-risk neuroblastoma.
