How strongly tumor cells adhere to the surrounding tissue could indicate the likelihood that cancer will spread to other parts of the body.

‘Tumor cells characterized by weak adhesion strength are more likely to migrate and invade other tissues compared with strongly adherent cells.’

How strongly tumor cells adhere to the surrounding tissue could
indicate the likelihood that cancer will spread to other parts of the
body, according to a study published in Biophysical Journal. 




Using a spinning disc device, the researchers found that tumor cells characterized by weak adhesion strength are more likely to migrate and invade other tissues compared with strongly adherent cells. The study may provide a much-needed marker to identify highly metastatic cells within a broader tumor cell population.
"There is no common biological marker that says that a tumor is more likely to spread," says senior study author Adam Engler of the University of California, San Diego. "However, our device shows that there may in fact be a physical marker that is predictive of the likelihood of spreading."
By contrast, some studies have suggested that a biophysical marker - the strength with which cells attach to the surrounding tumor tissue - could indicate the likelihood of secondary tumor development. But even within an individual tumor, cells exhibit substantial variability in their adhesive strength.
"We reasoned that understanding adhesive heterogeneity within an invasive population may improve our ability to physically monitor cancer cells and predict invasive behavior," says study co-author Afsheen Banisadr, a Ph.D. student in the Engler lab at the University of California, San Diego.
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Using this spinning disc shear assay, they found that metastatic cells exhibit remarkable heterogeneity in their adhesion strength, unlike their non-metastatic counterparts. Strongly adherent metastatic cells exhibit less migratory behavior, similar to non-metastatic cell lines. Taken together, the findings suggest that adhesion strength may serve as a general, highly accurate marker of metastatic cells.
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"If we find a correlation between low numbers of weakly adherent tumor cells in the tissue surrounding a tumor and long cancer-free survival times, we believe that this could serve as an indicator for metastatic potential of the patient's tumor," says study co-author Pranjali Beri, a Ph.D. student in the Engler lab at the University of California, San Diego.
In the future, clinicians could use this device to examine tumor biopsies and estimate the likelihood of metastasis, using this information to assess whether patients might need more aggressive treatment at earlier disease stages. "However, patients should realize that that the timing for these results to hit even the initial clinical trials is several years away," Engler says.
Source-Eurekalert