When cancer spreads, people often die. That's why a lot of cancer research and drugs focus on the metabolic pathways that allow cancer to metastasize -- to spread from one part of the body to another.
Cornell University researchers have now furthered understanding of how these pathways work. Their insights might aid future research on drug therapies that disrupt the sequence of events that lead to metastasis.
A study published in the journal Developmental Cell (Vol. 9, August 2005) reveals how connective tissue holding a cancer cell in place might degrade, unmooring the diseased cell and allowing it to spread to other parts of the body.
"We have identified a pathway that is specific for cancer," said Jun-Lin Guan, a professor in the Department of Molecular Medicine in the College of Veterinary Medicine at Cornell and an author of the paper. "So from here, if someone identifies a drug that targets this pathway, it is possible the drug will not affect normal cell function but will affect cancer cell activity." That, in turn, would alleviate drug side effects.
Guan and his colleagues used a cultured cell line to study cancer, which are mouse cells grown in the lab for research purposes. The researchers used these cells to create a model system for cancer cells, which means its basic pathway exists in real-world systems, while the actual proteins that act on the system may vary.
In the model system, the researchers discovered critical differences between cancer cells and normal cells regarding a mechanism called endocytosis -- which cells employ to let materials enter through the cell membrane.