White blood cells, key defenders in the body’s immune system, help activate cancer cells and aid their spread, a new study has found.
The study, led by investigators at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC) in Canada, reveals that infection-fighting white blood cells play a role in activating cancer cells and facilitating their spread to secondary tumours.
“We are the first to identify this entirely new way that cancer spreads,” said senior author Dr Lorenzo Ferri, MUHC director of the Division of Thoracic Surgery and the Upper Gastrointestinal (GI) Cancer Programme.
“What’s equally exciting is medications already exist that are being used for other non-cancer diseases, which may prevent this mechanism of cancer spread or metastasis,” Ferri said.