‘Breaking legs’ of cancer cells halts their spread

A new treatment halts the spread of cancer by “breaking the legs” of tumour cells.

Scientists used tiny gold rods to smash the leg-like protrusions called filopodia that help cancer cells up-anchor and move.

Laboratory tests on human cancer cells showed that rendering them limbless thwarted their ability to migrate and spread, or metastasise. It is the deadly spread of tumours to vital organs such as the brain that is most likely to kill a cancer patient. Targeting filopodia, which extend out from a weave of fibres called lamellipodia on the cell’s fringes, could be a game-changer in the fight against metastasis, the scientists believe.

Researcher Yue Wu, a graduate student in bioanalytical chemistry at the Georgia Institute of Technology, US, said: “All these lamellipodia and filopodia give the cancer cells legs. The metastasis requires those protrusions, so the cells can travel.”

A cancer cell with stringy ‘legs’ called filopodia