SCOTTISH-led research has revealed the exact force cancer cells use when they invade the body, potentially leading to new treatments.
Many cancers form invadopodia, tiny protrusions about a thousandth of a millimetre in size which promote invasion of healthy tissue by releasing enzymes and acting as a “chemically assisted mechanical drill”.
Although scientists had previously thought that invadopodia employ mechanical force that aids in cancer invasion, direct measurements had remained elusive until now.
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It’s hoped that the new findings, published in the journal Science Advances, will herald further breakthroughs in the treatment of the disease.
According to Cancer Research UK, one in two people in the UK will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime, although approximately 38% of cancer cases are preventable.
Every four minutes, someone in the UK dies from cancer.
The research, led by Professor Malte Gather from the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of St Andrews, used cells that form a model for head and neck cancer and an artificial replica of healthy tissue to study the force that cancer cells apply as they invade.
Working with the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, the team discovered that the force the disease exerts is linked to its ability to attack and degrade healthy tissue in the human body.
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Gather explained: “It has been known for a long time that cancer cells have little spots on their surface that secrete chemicals to degrade the surrounding tissue.
“Our work now confirms that these spots also push against the tissue, and so most likely act as a chemically assisted mechanical drill, allowing cancer to invade healthy cells.”
Professors Jeffrey Segall and Michael Prystowsky, from the New York team, said: “The force imaging technology developed at St Andrews combined with cell biologic approaches gives us a new window into ways to elucidate mechanisms of cancer invasion and new possibilities to inhibit tumour cell invasion.”
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