Cornell University Bioengineers Discover Natural Switch That Controls Spread of Breast Cancer Cells

With a desire to inhibit metastasis, Cornell biomedical engineers have found the natural switch between the body's inflammatory response and how malignant breast cancer cells use the bloodstream to spread. Pro-inflammatory signaling molecules in blood called cytokines constitute a "switch" that induces the mechanism by which breast cancer cells "roll" and adhere to the blood vessel surface. The cancer cells eventually stick to the vessel and infiltrate it.