New discovery about the mechanism of cancer cell metastasis
According to research published in the journal Molecular Cancer Research, scientists at the Duke Cancer Institute (USA) discovered that cancer cells circulating in the blood always carry newly identified proteins.
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Cancer cells. (Source: Internet) |
Using existing technologies to detect malignant cells circulating in the blood, the team analyzed these cells in a new way, showing how they can escape from the original tumor and travel to other locations in the body.
The metastatic cancer components include proteins we typically see when early stem cells begin to specialize and travel throughout the body to develop organs such as the heart, bones and skin, the team said.
The discovery could improve the accuracy of blood tests that detect metastatic cancer cells, giving doctors more useful information in determining how a patient's disease is responding or progressing.
“Based on our findings, useful information in blood tests could help us identify molecular targets for effective therapies for cancer patients,” said study leader Associate Professor Andrew J. Armstrong.
The research team isolated cancer cells from blood samples of 57 patients, including 41 men with advanced prostate cancer and 16 women with metastatic breast cancer.
In cancer cells from more than 80 percent of prostate cancer patients and 75 percent of breast cancer patients, the researchers found a group of proteins that typically appear during early development when stem cells begin to take on distinct roles.
As stem cells begin to form tissues and organs in the body, they transform in two processes called epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and mesenchymal-epithelial transition (MET).
Cancer cells have a similar ability to change from an epithelial cell to an organ-like cell, from which they develop into a mesenchymal or connective tissue-like cell.
This ETM process may underlie drug resistance and enable cancer cells to metastasize./.
According to (Vietnam+)
