FACTS: Experts have been able to measure the force cancer cells apply for this first time. They created their own ‘cancer cells’ in the lab and used a new imaging method. The drills — called invadopodia — secrete flesh-eating-enzymes into cells. The team hope that their findings will help to develop new cancer treatments .
QUOTES: Paper author Malte Gather, of the University of St. Andrews in Scotland: ‘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.’
SOURCE: To read the source for this article in ScienceAdvances journal, click here.
