Natural killer (NK) cells, a type of immune cell, are known to limit metastasis by inducing the death of cancer cells. But metastases still form in patients, so there must be ways for cancer cells to escape. Using a novel cell culture method developed by lead author Isaac Chan, M.D., Ph.D., a medical oncology fellow at Johns Hopkins working in the the laboratory of Andrew Ewald, Ph.D., the researchers studied the interactions between NK cells and invasive breast cancer cells in the laboratory in real time. They discovered that metastatic breast cancer cells can reprogram NK cells so that they stop killing cancer cells and, instead, assist in metastasis.
