STAND-ALONE TREES OR A BED OF WEEDS?

摘要

A controversial idea that challenges established notions of how cancer grows and spreads in the body got a fresh airing at the NCRI cancer conference in Birmingham, UK, this week. If verified, it coutd explain how cancers quickly grow so big, and also suggest ways in which cancer drugs could be used more effectively.rnThe conventional picture is that a tumour grows from a single clump of cells that divide uncontrollably. Like a tree, the tumour only acquires the ability to send out "seeds", or metastases, once it becomes mature. Following this thinking, therapy of early stages of cancer tends to target cell division, not metastasis.