What This Means
First of all, this provides a way for oncologists to know whether or not a cancer is likely to, or about to, start spreading or not. They also found that replacing the tumors with scaffolds made of this collagen could prevent cancer from growing and spreading at all. Their study used a specialized form of microscopy to observe cancer cells inside live mice in real time.
“We want to film them in real time so we can understand their process and their behavior,” said study senior author Jose Javier Bravo-Cordero. “If you have a tumor that has a tendency to lose collagen expression, over time the cells that disseminate may be more efficient in restoring growth and forming metastases than the ones that overexpress collagen.”