US Scientists may have finally found the reason why cancer spreads

In what could be for the first time in the history, an international team led by scientists from Johns Hopkins University has found the reason behind the spread of cancer, as well as the measure to slow it down.

The study is important since 90% of cancer deaths are caused because of cancer cells breaking off from the origin and starting to spread in the body.

As of now, there are no existing drugs for stopping metastasis, which is the spread of cancer.

As per the researchers, when cancer cells secrete two proteins on getting densely packed, which then deliver a stark message to other cancerous cells to go away.

This makes the cancer cells to break off from the pack and get into the blood stream to float to the other parts of the body.

"It's like waiting for a table in a severely overcrowded restaurant and then getting a message that says you need to take your appetite elsewhere," said lead author Hasini Jayatilaka, who hails from Sri Lanka.

"We found it was not the overall size of a primary tumor that caused cancer cells to spread, but how tightly those cells are jammed together when they break away from the tumor."

For stopping the spread, Jayatilaka and her colleagues have found a medication mix which would prevent this microscopic message from being delivered.

The treatment has, as of yet, been tested in animal models and not on humans.

This treatment can inhibit metastasis which would improve cancer patient outcomes.

Two existing drugs, viz., Tocilizumab and Reparaxin, have been found to prevent cancer cells from getting these orders.

While Tocilizumab is an approved medication for rheumatoid arthritis and is being tried for use in ovarian cancer cases, Reparaxin is presently being tried as a possible treatment for breast cancer.

"In our eight-week experiment, when we used these two drugs together, the growth of the primary tumor itself was not stopped, but the spread of the cancer cells was significantly decreased," Jayatilaka said. "We discovered a new signaling pathway that, when blocked, could potentially curb cancer's ability to metastasize."

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