Scientists discover how cancer cells ‘recruit’ healthy cells into tumours

Scientists from two Iowa universities using 3D technology for the first time recreated in real time the process of the appearance of an oncological tumor, also for the first time specifying the number of cancer cells required for its formation - 5%. 

According to Phys.org, scientists have recreated the process of formation of a cancerous tumor using the example of breast tissue. The results of the study were published in the American Journal of Cancer Research. It turned out that the very 5% of cancer cells required to initiate a tumor actively attract healthy cells to it. 

“It is not at all like they stick to each other during the formation of a tumor. Cancer cells move, "recruiting" new "recruits". The process of tumor formation is by no means passive. Some special cells in it are "recruiters", " - the professor of biology David Saul described the process.

According to scientists, the results of the study of the process will allow you to more accurately identify the cancer cells involved in "recruiting" and create antibodies to fight them. “The tumor cells know what they are doing. They make tumors, ”summed up Professor Sol. As a hypothesis, scientists have suggested that such cells were "programmed" in humans at a primitive stage. However, then they served to form embryos. Now cells, one might say, protect the body from foreign influences, trying to reproduce tissue. Bacteria have a similar function, creating a protective film against artificial implants. 

“There is always a reason for everything. Perhaps a cancer cell is “building a new body,” or defense, in response to the human body’s efforts to defeat it, ” muses Professor Sol.