Through these changes, cancer cells can transfer and escape from being chased

All over the world, cancer is a major threat to human health One of the most important lethal characteristics of cancer is the ability of cancer cells to spread and metastasize In fact, more than 90% of cancer patients die because of cancer metastasis Recently, memorial Sloan Kettering cancer center and Weill Cornell Medical College A team of scientists from medicine, in the research of primary lung cancer and metastatic lung cancer, found the important changes of cancer cells when they spread and evade the pursuit of immune cells, so that we have a deeper understanding of cancer metastasis The results were published in nature medicine, a subsidiary of nature The researchers obtained 17 samples from patients with lung cancer, which were the primary focus, metastasis focus and normal lung tissue as the control, which could represent each stage of tumor progression They used single cell RNA sequencing (scrnaseq) technology to sequence more than 40000 cells in these samples, to find out which genes are expressed in each cell, and to use advanced computing methods to analyze massive data The results showed that the cell types of primary tumor were different from those of metastatic tumor ▲ single cell RNA sequencing was performed on the cells of patient samples (picture source: reference [1]) In the primary tumor, the researchers found that in addition to the mature cells in normal lung tissue, there are two kinds of "primitive" cells, which are related to tissue regeneration When lung damage occurs, such as inhalation of oil fumes or smoking, the two less differentiated cells participate in tissue repair In metastatic tumors, most cells regress to a more primitive state, which is closer to the characteristics of embryonic stem cells The researchers speculate that a lower degree of differentiation makes it easier for these metastatic cells to restart growth in new locations "Cancer cells transferred to the lungs follow an embryonic development process and simulate organ formation." "From this point of view, cancer metastasis can be seen as a malformed organ growing in the wrong place," said Dr Dana pe'er, co-author ▲ key epithelial cell types and related transcription factors involved in lung development and repair, Sox2 and Sox9 are related to specific types of cell development (picture source: reference [1])