HOW CANCER SPREADS - THE MYSTERIES OF METASTASIS

When cancer is localized to the site in which it originated, it can often be controlled, and sometimes even cured, by conventional methods; but when cancers metastasize - i.e., spread to distant locations - the situation becomes considerably more ominous. The ability of cancer to metastasize is what makes the disease potentially so deadly.

For the past several decades it has generally been assumed that metastatic spread happens relatively late in the course of the disease, and that it occurs largely as a result of increasing malignancy in the original (primary) tumor. However, several recent papers, including one published last week in the journal Science, have presented new evidence challenging this theory and raising some very interesting questions about how and when cancers begin to spread (Podsypanina, 2008).

Full article at: The Moss Reports

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