Breast cancer cells do not undergo a commonly accepted transformation to
spread to distant organs such as the lungs, Weill Cornell Medicine
investigators have found in a new study. This discovery may settle a
longstanding debate about how cancers spread, the investigators say, and
may change the way many forms of the disease are treated. For more than a decade, many researchers have believed that a biological
process that transforms the shape of cells that line cavities, organs
and blood vessels in the body was necessary for metastasis. Epithelial
to mesenchymal transition, or EMT, strips away the cells’ ability to
hold on tightly to their neighbors, allowing them to migrate throughout
the body.
“There is a substantial effort underway to develop drugs aimed at
reversing the EMT process in order to halt metastasis, but our findings
suggest that this approach may not work,” he added. “Instead, we suggest
combining chemotherapy with a drug that blocks EMT as the first
treatment given to breast cancer patients, and likely others with
cancer as well.”
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