Cancer cells that lie 'snoozing' in the skeleton can be awakened - or left to slumber on - by changes in the bone that surrounds them, Australian scientists have shown. In a world first, researchers from the Garvan Institute of Medical Research have used state-of-the-art microscopy techniques to watch cancer cells sleep within living bone over a period of months. They show that cancer cells can be 'woken up' when bone tissue is broken down around them, suggesting new possibilities for treating metastatic cancer in bone.
In several cancers (including breast and prostate), cancer cells can spread from the original tumour site into bone.
