Curing cancer - How metastases arise Part 3b-1 - What cells normally migrate
11 January 2024
Metastases are cancer cells that spread from a primary tumor mass to noncontiguous tissues and distant organs. They are the major cause of cancer death. In this series, How metastases arise, I explore what we know about metastases and speculate on future knowledge and treatment.
In my most recent essay, I discuss the cells that normally migrate. This is important because cancer cells hijack the migration mechanisms used by these cells when they metastasize.
My “big picture” takeaways from this essay are:
In biology, details matter. To substantially reduce cancer deaths, we need to better understand the intricate details of how metastases arise, as discussed in these essays, so we can develop therapies based on each step in the process.
We should be awed and humbled at the sophistication of life. In this essay, we discuss the seemingly simple concept of cell migration, but soon realize that cells must start and stop migration at different times during embryogenesis based on signals that derive from DNA that is essentially the same in every cell in the body and which changes minimally over time. Understanding how this works is a challenge - creating such as system seems miraculous.
To substantially reduce cancer deaths or to solve other difficult problems, we not only need to want to do this, but we need two “superpowers”: the ability to say “I don’t know” and “I was wrong”. We don’t know many things and if we try to solve difficult problems, we will be wrong or ineffective most of the time. To be successful, we have to learn from our mistakes, which is difficult if you know everything and are never wrong.
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