While cancer in itself is curable to some extent with the advancement of medical science, it still remains one of the deadliest, especially when these tumourous cells jump into the blood and infect another organ. A new study has now revealed that these tumourous cells in people with breast cancer jump into the blood when people are sleeping.
Metastatic cancer is when tumorous cells that originated in one part of the body jump into another via blood. Also called stage IV cancer, these cells, according to the National Cancer Institute, have features like that of primary cancer and not like the cells in the place where the metastatic cancer is found. This is how doctors can tell that it is cancer that has spread from another part of the body.
The study published in the journal Nature states that dynamics that dictate the generation and dissemination of circulating tumour cells are largely uncharacterised, and it is often assumed that they are constantly shed from growing tumours or are shed as a consequence of mechanical insults.