Cells Can’t Divide And Invade At The Same Time

Monday, October 26, 2015 - 15:30 in Biology & Nature

A protozoan in a late stage of cell division Dr. Stan Erlandsen, USCDCP via publicdomainimage.com Just like the X-Men, mutations endow cancer cells with unique abilities that normal, healthy cells just don’t have. For example, cancer cells, unlike normal ones, can invade other cells, causing the disease to metastasize to new tissues in the body and put the patient’s life further at risk. But the mechanism by which cancer cells are able to both multiply and invade new cells has been poorly understood, as scientists have been unable to find cells performing both those tasks simultaneously in a living organism. Now, researchers have found that cancer cells might divide and conquer at totally different stages of their development. According to a new study published today in Developmental Cell, researchers found that, at...

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