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Monday, December 28, 2020
Human metastatic melanoma cells in a lymph node. ENPP1, a protein involved in immune evasion, is shown in green.
Summary
Researchers at Memorial Sloan Kettering have learned how chromosomal instability allows cancer cells to avoid immune defenses and metastasize (spread). The discovery opens up potential new avenues for treatment.
Cancer cells are known for spreading genetic chaos. As cancer cells divide, DNA segments and even whole chromosomes can be duplicated, mutated, or lost altogether. This is called chromosomal instability, and scientists at Memorial Sloan Kettering have learned that it is associated with cancer’s aggressiveness. The more unstable chromosomes are, the more likely that bits of DNA from these chromosomes will end up where they don’t belong: outside of a cell’s central nucleus and floating in the cytoplasm.