Cancer neuroscience: illuminating the neural dimension of tumor biology

The nervous system plays a dynamic and active role in cancer progression, influencing tumor growth, invasion, metastasis, and response to therapy. Neural components within the tumor microenvironment communicate with cancer cells through neurotransmitters, neurotrophic factors, and electrical signaling, whereas tumors reciprocally remodel surrounding neural circuits. This Scientific Reports Collection on Cancer Neuroscience highlights recent advances uncovering these complex interactions across molecular, cellular, and systems levels. The featured studies investigate mitochondrial and metabolic modulation in glioblastoma, neural regulatory pathways driving tumor invasiveness, and functional neuroimaging correlates of cognitive outcomes in glioma survivors. Together, these publications illustrate how integrating neuroscience with oncology offers new mechanistic insight and therapeutic opportunities. By illuminating the neural dimension of tumor biology, this Collection aims to inspire interdisciplinary approaches to decipher and therapeutically target the bidirectional crosstalk between the nervous system and cancer.