Paving the way for metastasis
A new study from MIT reveals how cancer cells take some of their first steps away from their original tumor sites. This spread, known as metastasis, is responsible for 90 percent of cancer deaths. Studying mice, the researchers found that cancer cells with a particular version of the Mena protein, called MenaINV (invasive), are able to remodel their environment to make it easier for them to migrate into blood vessels and spread through the body. They also showed that high levels of this protein are correlated with metastasis and earlier deaths among breast cancer patients. Finding a way to block this protein could help to prevent metastasis, says Frank Gertler, an MIT professor of biology and a member of the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research. “That’s something that I think would be very promising, because we know that when we genetically remove MenaINV, the tumors become nonmetastatic,” says Gertler, who is the...