Cancer has a mighty big bag of tricks that it uses to evade the body's natural defense mechanisms and proliferate. Among those tricks is one that allows tumor cells to turn the intricate and extensive system of lymphatic vessels into something of a highway to metastasis. Yet research unveiled this week may aid in the development of therapeutics that will put the brakes on such cancer spread, and the researchers who completed the study say the findings may extend to other lymphatic disorders.
In the latest issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry, the team at the VA San Diego Healthcare System and the University of California, San Diego, reports an important advance in the understanding of the molecular machinery needed for lymphatic cell growth.
"In many carcinomas, lymphatic vessels grow and remodel around and sometimes within tumors. This allows tumor cells to go upstream to the lymph nodes," explains assistant professor Mark Fuster, who led the study. Once tumor cells hitch a ride to the lymph nodes, the disease can be more difficult to fight. "We were trying to understand the mechanisms that turn on the growth of lymphatic vessel cells in the laboratory."...read more>>>...