How Cancer Behaves and Spreads Paves the Way for New Treatment

A University of Minnesota Twin Cities-led international team of researchers has found evidence that cancer cells gravitate towards mechanical sweet spot environments, providing novel insights into cancer invasion of the body and paving the way for future treatments.

Cancer Behavior and Sweet Spot Environment

Research Into Cancer Conducted At The Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute — CAMBRIDGE, UNITED KINGDOM - DECEMBER 09: A scientist uses a warm water bath to help stick thin tissue sections to microscope slides for analysis, at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute on December 9, 2014 in Cambridge, England. Cancer Research UK is the world's leading cancer charity dedicated to saving lives through research. Its vision is to bring forward the day when all cancers are cured. They have saved millions of lives by discovering new ways to prevent, diagnose and treat cancer, and as such the survival rate in the UK has doubled in the last 40 years. Cancer Research UK funds over 4,000 scientists, doctors and nurses across the UK, more than 33,000 patients who join clinical trials each year and a further 40,000 volunteers that give their time to support the work. Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

A recent study published in the journal Nature Materials, titled "Directed cell migration towards softer environments." could help researchers and engineers better understand how cancer spreads through the body and improve future treatment options.

In a previous study, the team found that cells can sense the stiffness of their environment, ranging from stiff bone tissue to soft fatty tissue to medium stiffness muscle tissue. Their ability to move is highly dependent upon the environment they live. The team's research shows that the cells can have a sweet spot of stiffness that isn't too hard or soft and have better traction to move faster and further.

In a recent peer-reviewed study, researchers found that the stiffness of cancer's environment impacts their speed and affects the direction in which the cells move.

Researchers have thought that cells would always gravitate to stiffer environments for several years. However, the team recently observed for the first time that cancer cells move in the direction of their sweet spot that's more in the middle.

The senior author of the study David Odde, a professor in the University of Minnesota Twin Cities Department of Biomedical Engineering, explains that the discovery challenges conventional thinking in the field, which is that cancer cells only move towards stiffer environments. He adds that he believes the findings will change how people perceive the phenomenon. Stating that their mathematical models predicted and the team has demonstrated via experiments that cells gravitate toward the softer side, reports EurekAlert.

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Studying the Movement and Behaviors of Cancer Cells

During the study, the team looked at breast and brain cancer cells. Researchers placed the cells in two environments, including a stiffer and softer region, then observed where the cancer cells accumulated.

The research team found that some cells, such as breast cancer, have a feedback mechanism causing them to grip more strongly in stiffer environments. This explains why previous studies showed cells moving to stiffer sides. But, if you turn that mechanism genetically off, the cells will gravitate towards the middle.

Odde explains that they are decoding how cancer cells invade the body's tissues. Stating that these cells do not move randomly. They have a particular way they like to move, and if we can further understand their behavior, we can get better at ripping the cells up.

The next step for the team is to use the newly discovered information to build a simulator showing how cancer cells move through an entire tumor, which may further predict the cell's movements based on the environment.

Deciphering the behavior of cancer cells can increase the effectiveness of future treatments and may lead to the complete eradication of the cells in the body.