Scientists from MD Anderson Cancer Center, University of Texas have been studying ovarian cancer in mice and women (1).
First they found that tumour cells spread ovarian cancer by first ‘homing in’ on a fatty sheath of tissue, the omentum, where they grow then cause metastases. This finding ran counter to previous theories where direct surface contact was believed to cause cancer spread.
Further analysis in mice and cross-related to humans found that HER-3 played an important role. The higher the HER-3 level in humans, the shorter the survival times. The scientists will now look to see if there is opportunity to target this protein as there is with HER-2 positive breast cancer patients.
(1) http://www.cell.com/cancer-cell/abstract/S1535-6108(14)00192-5