Preventing Cancer Metastasis with Collagen
How do cancer cells travel beyond the primary tumor, stay dormant for years and then suddenly wake up, causing cancer to recur? Researchers at Mount Sinai believe they may have found one answer—and that the discovery could offer new tools for predicting and preventing cancer relapses.
The researchers discovered cancer cells stay dormant by secreting a specific type of collagen protein into their environment. When collagen levels fall, the cells turn malignant. Adding collagen to the cancer cells’ environment forces them to remain in the dormant state, they reported in Nature Cancer.
