Wednesday, October 03, 2007

Cancer cells enlist adult stem cells to promote metastasis

Source: Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research
Date: October 3, 2007

Summary:

Everyone knows that tumors are packed with cancer cells, but many normal cells live among these deviants. The normal cells form a structural framework called the stroma, which was once thought to resemble passive scaffolding. But a growing body of research suggests that cancer cells actively recruit normal cells from local and distant sites to the scaffolding, where they release signals that help the tumor thrive.