Where cancers spread to depends on cellular ‘soil prep’

Cancer Research UK - Science blog

As challenges go, understanding how cancers spread around the body is a biggy.
We know the locations tumour cells end up in isn’t random – breast cancer cells tend to head for the lungs, liver, bones or brain, for example.
But how they do this has remained a bit of a mystery.
In 1889, London doctor Stephen Paget planted the idea of ‘seed and soil’. He believed that tumour cells find the body’s ‘fertile ground’, seeding their secondary roots in the tissues that are most welcoming.
It’s a compelling idea, yet many believe it’s too simple a view of the problem.
But a new US study – published in the journal Nature  (abstract)– digs deeper into this theory, finessing the idea with some convincing data to back it up.
It turns out that instead of finding already fertile soil, cancer cells might actually be ploughing their own furrow in advance of spreading there. And, crucially, the discovery could one day help make predictions about whether a tumour might spread.
We asked our experts what they thought of the new findings......