Scientists Stop Genes that Help Breast Cancer to Spread

US scientists have demonstrated a way to stop breast cancer spreading to other parts of the body by either switching off the genes involved or blocking them with drugs.

Tumours formed from cancer that has spread or metastased from the primary site to other parts of the body cause 90 per cent of cancer deaths.

The process of metastasis or cancer spread is still much of a mystery to scientists. They can't tell the difference between a tumour that won't spread and one that will. And why, when hundreds of tumour cells get into the bloodstream every day, do only a small number of them take up residence in a new site and start multiplying?

Dr Joan Massagué from the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, US, has been working in this field for some time. He and his team have been looking at cell regulation and how it helps cancer cells to spread to specific tissues...

Whole article www.medicalnewstoday.com

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