Prevent softening of cancer cells –MIT researchers are working diligently to develop drugs that would prevent softening of cancer cells. Now, when the cancer cells enter the metastasis stage, they begin to soften. This softening of cancer cells makes it easier for them to travel and get transported to different regions in the body. But the researchers at MIT are developing drugs that would hamper this softening and thus prevent the spread of cancer to other parts of the body.

What is the metastasis of cancer cells?

Metastasis of cancer cells is called when the cancer cells after being populated in one region begin to travel to the other body parts as well. Doctors in simple terms, call this that cancer has now metastasized. Thus, with the beginning of metastasis, the cure for cancer too becomes increasingly difficult. The MIT study has also revealed that the tumor cells very strategically squeeze themselves to be transported.

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Prevent softening of cancer cells- Roger Kamm

Roger Kamm is the author of the study and also the Cecil and Ida Green Professor. He is working towards making drugs that could effectively prevent this softening and thus impede their spread to other parts of the body. He quotes, “We have long thought that if we could identify the barriers that a cancer cell has to overcome to form a metastatic tumor, that new drugs could be found and lives could be saved”.

The basis of the research:

Studies have further revealed that metastatic tumors claim the lives of nearly 90 percent of total cancer-affected individuals. Thus to get multiplied, cancer cells need to be transported to the other regions and then undergo Trans endothelial migration. It is at this stage when these deadly cancer cells begin to multiply at an extremely high rate. Thus, developing drugs that prevent the softening of cancer cells could pave a great way to fight cancer in its entirety.