Researchers have unveiled clues into how breast cancer cells spread around the body

New research from Imperial College London and The Institute of Cancer Research, London has identified a genetic ‘switch’ in breast cancer cells that could provide new avenues for helping treat breast cancer that returns and spreads around the body. The switch boosts the production of a type of internal scaffolding. This is a type of protein, called Keratin-80, and related to the protein that helps keep hair strong. Boosting the amount of this scaffolding makes the cancer cells more rigid, which the researchers say may help the cells clump together and travel in the bloodstream to other parts of the body. The researchers, who