Cancer cells spread by switching on and off abilities to sense their surroundings, move, hide and grow new tumours, a new study has found.
This sensitivity to their surroundings is the key ability that makes small numbers of cancer cells better at spreading than other cells in a tumour, scientists at the University of Reading discovered.
The researchers developed a new method combining evolutionary biology and artificial intelligence techniques to study the movement and shape of cancer cells in more detail than ever, to learn why some can move more easily to different parts of the body and grow new tumours.
