Breast cancer: Support our research into stopping the spread of cancer

Our fundraising is supporting pioneering research which is providing a platform on which new and improved treatments to stop cancers from spreading are designed, and helping save many more lives to the disease in the future. The team study a type of healthy cell, called fibroblasts, which are found throughout our body. Fibroblasts are our most common body cell and act like scaffolding for all our organs and tissues. Dr Sahai's team have been looking at how these supporting cells can be manipulated by cancer cells to act as accomplices for their escape around the body. Dr Sahai found that cancer cells were able to turn fibroblasts into cancer conspirators called CAFs which start to prepare the tumour cell's escape by forming make-shift escape tunnels that the tumour cells can burrow through. At the same time, CAFs also release nutrients that feed the cancer cells, helping increase their likelihood of success. Flicking the 'off' switch Dr Sahai's recent breakthrough discovery was that the fibroblasts' ability to help cancer cells spread seemed to be sensitive to changes in oxygen levels. The team tested experimental drugs that mimic the effect of low oxygen environments on cells. This seemed to switch off the fibroblasts, reducing their ability to help cancer cells spread. There is already some work going on to develop drugs that target these oxygen-sensitive molecular switches. But the big challenge in taking these results closer to the clinic is finding better ways of differentiating between effects on the cells surrounding the tumour, or the cancer cells themselves. We also need to find out how this works in people so Dr Sahai is collecting CAFs from tumours removed from patients as part of their treatment so he can understand how they work. Ultimately, these latest findings reinforce the need to see cancer as more than just rogue cells. It's a working 'machine' that can co-opt and corrupt healthy cells to keep growing. For Dr Sahai this means studying not just the tumour, but all the other tissues, cells and molecules that surround it. By doing so, we'll not only be able to work out how cancer cells spread, we may also find a way to stop them.