I talked in a February post about how do cells know to stay where they are to form the structures of our bodies. For example, how does a newly replicated bone cell know to stay where it is in the bone and not start replicating new cells in a random direction.
With that concept, I recently thought about metastasizing cancer cells. Cancer cells initially stay in the place of their origin, but eventually they reach a stage where they metastasize and start replicating and moving through out the body. At that point I wondered what has changed about that cancer cell. Why does it no longer stay in its place of origin. Has some gene suddenly turned on or off that then frees the cancer cell to wonder. Has the cell wall changed in some fashion.
First it would be interesting to understand what DNA code is turned off and on in a cancer cell versus a normal cell. Then it would be interesting to understand how the DNA code has again changed in a cancer cell that is free floating versus a stay in place cancer cell.
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