Michael Cross1,2, Andrew Dillin3,4,5 and Thales Papagiannakopoulos1,6 1Department of Pathology, New York University Grossman School of Medicine, New York, New York 10016, USA; 2Vilcek Institute of Graduate Biomedical Sciences, New York University Grossman School of Medicine, New York, New York 10016, USA; 3Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of California, Berkely, Berkeley, California 94720 USA; 4Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkely, Berkeley, California 94720, USA; 5The Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California, Berkely, Berkeley, California 94720, USA; 6Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Cancer Center, New York University Grossman School of Medicine, New York, New York 10016, USA Corresponding author: papagt01nyumc.org Abstract

Recent work has highlighted the central role the brain–body axis plays in not only maintaining organismal homeostasis but also coordinating the body's response to immune and inflammatory insults. Here, we discuss how science is poised to address the many ways that our brain is directly involved with disease. In particular, we feel that combining cutting-edge tools in neuroscience with translationally relevant models of cancer will be critical to understanding how the brain and tumors communicate and modulate each other's behavior.