A new study by University of Minnesota biomedical engineers shows how they stopped cancer cells from moving and spreading, even when the cells changed their movements.
A new study by University of Minnesota biomedical engineers shows how they stopped cancer cells from moving and spreading, even when the cells changed their movements. The discovery could have a major impact on millions of people undergoing therapies to prevent the spread of cancer within the body.
The research is published today in Nature Communications, a leading research journal.
Researchers have known for years that tumors have patterns that are like little “highways” that cancer cells use to move within the tumors and ultimately toward blood vessels and adjacent tissue to invade the body. Patients who have high numbers of these patterns in their tumors have a lower chance of surviving the cancer.
What the researchers haven’t been able to figure out until now is how the cells recognize these patterns and move along them.
Read more at University of Minnesota
Image: After targeting the "motors" that generate forces in cancer cells to move, the cancer cells switch to a dendritic or "flowing" response to follow pathways in tumors that drive cell migration and promote spreading of the cancer. (Credit: Tabdanov/Provenzano, University of Minnesota)
