British scientists have made an important discovery in understanding how cancers spread by using embryonic stem (ES) cells to investigate how some tumors are able to migrate to other parts of the body.

A research team from the University of Manchester studied a crucial change that makes cancer cells able to start moving and spread into other tissues, the journal Molecular Biology of the Cell said on Tuesday.

Normal cells, as well as early cancer cells, are called epithelial cells because they bind tightly to each other forming stable layers of tissue, the research team led by Chris Ward was quoted as saying.

However, as a tumor becomes more advanced, some of the cells change to become "mesenchymal", and mesenchymal cells do not bind to each other, forming more disorganized tissues in which the cells can move around.

As this crucial change, known as the epithelial-mesenchymal transition, was first observed in the early embryo, the research team theorized that embryonic stem cells might undergo a similar process.

"We have shown that ES cells spontaneously change in a manner that is remarkably similar to the epithelial-mesenchymal transition. Since ES cells can be grown in the laboratory, where they keep the characteristics of the cells in the early embryo, they can be studied in detail," Ward said.

"By studying these ES cells we have already identified a novel component of this transition process. We expect the use of ES cells will lead to the identification of other unknown factors involved in cancer cell spread, hopefully leading to new avenues for cancer therapy," Ward said.

Understanding how cancer cells start to spread is tremendously important for cancer research as it will help scientists to find new treatments that can prevent tumors from spreading and make them essentially harmless.

Source: Xinhua