Erica Sloan

Erica Sloan has demonstrated that sympathetic nervous system activation through beta-adrenergic signaling promotes cancer metastasis by remodeling the tumor microenvironment to favor invasion, angiogenesis, and immune suppression. Her work showed that chronic stress-induced neural signaling activates a transcriptional program in cancer cells and stromal cells that facilitates metastatic dissemination. Her clinical studies revealing that beta-blocker use is associated with reduced cancer mortality have led to prospective clinical trials of autonomic modulation as adjuvant cancer therapy.