Tumor cells secrete signals that call in wound healing cells to the tumor site. In the process, the normal wound healing cells make the tumor cells more aggressive and able to metastasize.
ANN ARBOR-Cancer cells are wily, well-traveled adversaries, constantly side-stepping treatments to stop their spread. But for the first time, scientists at the University of Michigan have decoded the molecular chatter that ramps certain cancer cells into overdrive and can cause tumors to metastasize throughout the body. Researchers have long known that tumors recruit healing cells, which is a major reason why cancer is so difficult to thwart. This is the first known study to explain the molecular behavior behind the series of changes that happen in the healing cells that result in metastasis. Russell Taichman, a professor at the U-M School of Dentistry and research associate Younghun Jung looked at prostate and breast tumors. Their study, "Recruitment of mesenchymal stem cells into prostate tumors promotes metastasis," appears April 30 in the online journal Nature . Consider that a tumor is a wound that won't heal.
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