Original story from the Baylor College of Medicine (TX, USA). What strategy does triple negative breast cancer use to boost its ability to metastasize? Researchers have found out. Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine (TX, USA) have uncovered a strategy that triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) cells use to boost their ability to metastasize. Metastasis is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths and scientists are investigating ways to prevent it. These findings highlight new possibilities for developing clinical interventions to treat metastatic TNBC patients for whom there are no specific therapies. “Metastasis occurs when cells break away from the main tumor and travel through the bloodstream to spread to other parts of the body where they can seed new growths,” explained corresponding author Chonghui Cheng, professor of molecular and human genetics and molecular and cellular biology at Baylor. Cheng also is a member of the Lester and Sue Smith Breast Center and the Dan L Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center, both at Baylor. “Scientists know that circulating tumor cells (CTC) are more likely to give rise to new tumors when they travel in clusters rather than as single cells. Clusters survive better and lodge in new organs more easily.” But there is a mystery surrounding TNBC clusters. Typically, adherens junction (AJ) proteins mediate stable cell–cell interactions that keep clusters together. But AJs often are lost in highly aggressive TNBCs, raising the question of how CTCs form clusters from such tumors. Cheng and her colleagues compared TNBC cells with non-TNBC cells as well as metastatic and non-metastatic breast cancers. “When…
