Virginia Tech researchers are exploring the ways bacteria may play a key role in how aggressively cancer grows and moves throughout the body, and affects the surrounding non-cancerous cells.
When they first analysed the migration of infected pancreaticcancer cells, the found that the number of migrated cells drastically outnumber their expectations. Further studies revealed that a certain microbe can bind and invade the pancreatic cancer cells, which then secrete molecules that stimulate accelerated growth of cancer cells. Apparently, the microbe can also infect non-tumorous pancreatic cells, which later stimulate cancer cells to grow and spread more rapidly.
Equipped with the understanding of how bacterium in tumors are affecting the growth and spread of cancer will the scientists design more effective chemotherapy or immunotherapy treatments?
Source: Virginia Tech researchers discover how bacteria make pancreatic cancer cells grow and move
