How cancer cells spread revealed

A new research has revealed that the protein, Aiolos, has a critical role in spreading of the cancer cells.

Dr. Lance Terada, Chief of the Division of Pulmonary/Critical Medicine at UT Southwestern said that this is an important discovery because the vast majority of cancer-related deaths are accounted to the metastatic spread of tumors and now that they know the role of Aiolos, they can look toward therapeutic intervention.

The study has revealed a central mechanism by which cancer cells acquire blood cell characteristics to gain metastatic ability and these findings have allowed better understanding in the field.

The results found that Aiolos is produced by normal blood cells but when expressed by cancer cells, they copy their behaviour allowing the latter to metastasize, or spread, to other parts of the body and metastatic cancer cells have the ability to break free from tissue, circulate in the blood stream, and form tumors all over the body, in a way acting like blood cells.

The research is published online in the journal Cancer Cell.