For a cancer to spread from its place of origin to another organ, a tumor cell must complete a long and difficult journey. If, in addition, its destination is the highly protected brain, invasion or metastasis is even more difficult. The Spanish researcher Joan Massagué, from the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, has just identified the molecular weapons that allow breast cancer to spread to the brain.
The key, as published today in the journal Nature , is in three genes . On the one hand, the so-called COX2 and HG-EGF stimulate the mobility and invasiveness of cancer cells, and are also involved in the metastasis of the lungs. The third gene, ST6GALNAC5 , creates a covering that gives tumor cells the ability to cross the blood-brain barrier , which is responsible for filtering the blood that enters the brain.
? Our results draw attention to the role of this cell cover as a hitherto unknown accomplice of brain metastasis , and opens the doors to the possibility of developing new drugs ,? explained Massagué, who will continue to research in this line.
