Associate Professor
My lab employs multi-disciplinary approaches to understand the interactions between metastatic cancer cells and the brain stromal cells. We have been focusing on astrocytes, the most abundant brain stromal cells. We have found that astrocytes support the metastatic outgrowth. Moreover, the dynamic interactions between cancer cells and astrocytes create a unique immune microenvironment in the brain metastatic lesions. Our studies are exposing novel mechanisms which can provide potential therapeutic targets to control brain metastases
1. Chen Q, Wang WC, Evans SS. Tumor microvasculature as a barrier to anti-tumor immunity. Cancer Immunol Immunother. 52:670, 2003.
2. Appenheimer MM, Chen Q, Girard RA, Wang WC, Evans SS. Impact of fever-range thermal stress on lymphocyte-endothelial adhesion and lymphocyte trafficking. Immunol Invest. 34:295, 2005. CURRICULUM VITAE Qing Chen
3. Chen Q, Evans SS. Thermal regulation of lymphocyte trafficking: hot spots of the immune response. Int J Hyperthermia. 21:723, 2005.
4. Chen Q, Fisher DT, Kucinska SA, Wang WC, Evans SS. Dynamic control of lymphocyte trafficking by fever-range thermal stress. Cancer Immunol Immunother. 55:299, 2006.
5. Fisher DT, Chen Q, Appenheimer MM, Skitzki J, Wang WC, Odunsi K, Evans SS. Hurdles to lymphocyte trafficking in the tumor microenvironment: implications for effective immunotherapy. Immunol Invest. 35:251. 2006 [Shared first-author].
6. Vardam TD, Zhou L, Appenheimer MM, Chen Q, Wang WC, Baumann H, Evans SS. Regulation of a lymphocyte-endothelial-IL-6 trans-signaling axis by fever-range thermal stress: hot spot of immune surveillance. Cytokine. 39:84, 2007
7. Chen Q, Clancy KA, Wang WC, Evans SS. High endothelial venules: master regulators of lymphocyte trafficking and targets of fever-range thermal stress. In: Endothelial Biomedicine; William Aird, editor; Cambridge University Press. 2007
8. Evans SS, Fisher DT, Skitzki JJ, Chen Q Targeted regulation of a lymphocyte-endothelialinterleukin-6 axis by thermal stress. Int J Hyperthermia. 24:67, 2008
9. Chen Q, Massagué J. Molecular pathways: VCAM-1 as a potential therapeutic target in metastasis. Clin Cancer Res. 18:5520, 2012
10. Eroglu Z, Holmen SL, Chen Q, Khushalani NI, Amaravadi R, Thomas R, Ahmed KA, Tawbi H, Chandra S, Markowitz J, Smalley I, Liu JKC, Chen YA, Najjar YG, Karreth FA, Abate-Daga D, Glitza IC, Sosman JA, Sondak VK, Bosenberg M, Herlyn M, Atkins MB, Kluger H, Margolin K, Forsyth PA, Davies MA, Smalley KSM.Melanoma central nervous system metastases: An update to approaches, challenges, and opportunities. Pigment Cell Melanoma Res. 32:458, 2019
11. Karz A, Dimitrova M, Kleffman K, Alvarez-Breckenridge C, Atkins MB, Boire A, Bosenberg M, Brastianos P, Cahill DP, Chen Q, Ferguson S, Forsyth P, Glitza Oliva IC, Goldberg SB, Holmen SL, Knisely JPS, Merlino G, Nguyen DX, Pacold ME, Perez-Guijarro E, Smalley KSM, Tawbi HA, Wen PY, Davies MA, Kluger HM, Mehnert JM, Hernando E (2022). Melanoma central nervous system metastases: An update to approaches, challenges, and opportunities. Pigment Cell Melanoma Res. 35:554, 2022
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