Cancer’s ability to spread ‘may be its weakness’

A CANCER cell’s ability to survive as its spreads could be its Achilles’ heel, a study has found.

The cancerous cells appear to depend on an unusual survival mechanism to spread around the body.

But the breakthrough research by Queen Mary University of London may help develop novel treatments to prevent metastasis.

Stopping metastasis is one of the biggest challenges in cancer treatment as it is often not the original tumour that kills, but secondary growths.

These happen when cancer cells are able to break away from the primary site, travel around the body and “seed” new tumours.

Scientist have tried to work out how cancer cells are able to survive once they break away from a tumour to spread around the body.

Cells are relatively protected when they are attached to other cancer cells and their surroundings, but become more vulnerable when they detach and “float”.

Lead researcher Dr Stephanie Kermorgant from the university’s Barts Cancer Institute said: “Metastasis is currently incurable and remains one of the key targets of cancer research.

“Our research advances the knowledge of how two key molecules communicate and work together to help cancer cells survive during metastasis.

“We are hoping this might lead to the discovery of new drugs to block the spread of cancer within the body.”

The breakthrough could lead to the design of better therapies against metastasis and more effective treatment combinations that could prevent and slow both tumour growth and spread.

The study was published in Nature Communications.