Not all tumor cells are equal: Huge genetic diversity found in cells shed by tumors
Monday, May 7, 2012 - 21:30
in Health & Medicine
The cells that slough off from a cancerous tumor into the bloodstream are genetically diverse, researchers have found. Even within one patient, the tumor cells that make it into circulating blood vary drastically. The finding underscores how multiple types of treatment may be required to cure what appears outwardly as a single type of cancer. And it hints that current cell-line models of human cancers need to be improved.