Cancer linked to ‘hijacked’ cells

A BREAKTHROUGH in understanding how cancer spreads could lead to better treatments, according to experts.

Scientists have discovered that cancer cells ‘hijack’ a process used by healthy cells to spread.

It is hard to identify the key drivers of metastasis, when cancer spreads. But it has been discovered that a protein called NALCN may be important.

In experiments in mice, blocking the activity of the NALCN protein triggered metastasis. Also, when the protein was removed from mice without cancer, healthy cells moved around the body.

This suggests that metastasis isn’t an abnormal process limited to cancer, but a normal process used by healthy cells that has been exploited by cancers.

Group leader for the study, Professor Richard Gilbertson, of the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute, said: ‘This could have far-reaching implications for how we prevent cancer from spreading.’ The findings were published in the journal Nature Genetics.