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National Cancer Institute (March 8, 2011) The question remains one of cancer biology’s most perplexing: How do cancer cells from a primary tumor navigate to other parts of the body to form metastatic tumors? Most solid tumors arise from epithelial cells, which normally stick together in tightly bound sheets to provide the structural foundations of many organs. In principle, epithelial cells lack the ability to escape those bonds and wiggle and jostle their way into nearby tissues, other organs, or the circulatory system. Yet, somehow cancerous epithelial cells-also known as carcinoma cells-do end up in other areas of the body, and the outcome is often dire: metastatic tumors are responsible for the vast majority of cancer-associated deaths. (full story…) |
