Submission + - Scientists Provide Explanation For Cancer's Spread
Hugh Pickens writes: "Metastasis, the spread of cancer throughout the body, can be explained by the fusion of a cancer cell with a white blood cell in the original tumor, according to Yale School of Medicine researchers, who say that this single event can set the stage for cancer's migration to other parts of the body. The studies, spanning 15 years, have revealed that the newly formed hybrid of the cancer cell and white blood cell adapts the white blood cell's natural ability to migrate around the body, while going through the uncontrolled cell division of the original cancer cell. This causes a metastatic cell to emerge, which like a white blood cell, can migrate through tissue, enter the circulatory system and travel to other organs. "This is a unifying explanation for metastasis," said John Pawelek at Yale Cancer Center. "Although we know a vast amount about cancer, how a cancer cell becomes metastatic still remains a mystery." Although The fusion theory was first proposed in the early 1900s, the team began by fusing white blood cells with tumor cells which were remarkably metastatic and lethal when implanted into mice. "Viewing the fusion of a cancer cell and a white blood cell as the initiating event for metastasis suggests that metastasis is virtually another disease imposed on the pre-existing cancer cell," said Pawelek. "We expect this to open new areas for therapy based on the fusion process itself.""
