Despite improvements in medical technology, doctors still struggle to tell which breast cancers are highly aggressive and likely to spread and which are slow-growing and benign.
A new study may offer a valuable clue about how cancers become aggressive. The study identifies a genetic switch that in some breast cancer cells that, when triggered, helps transform non-aggressive cells into cancer stem cells capable of proliferating and spreading. The switch, researchers found, is positioned differently in two types of breast cancer—one that has a greater survival rate, and one that is more prone to spread.
Read the full article here: Scientists find genetic switch that may fuel breast cancer’s spread