Scientists uncover connection between breast cancer cells and surrounding healthy tissue

Biologist Lee Ligon of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and her research team have discovered a previously unknown way that breast cancer cells interact with surrounding healthy tissue. Her research shows that the specialized type of molecule Cadherin-23 helps to connect cancerous breast tumor cells to neighboring healthy tissue, called the stroma. This interaction is odd because in most cases, the over 80 different cadhedrin molecules stick only two cells of the same type together. “Pathologists studying cancerous tissues have often noted that tumor cells make contact with the cells in the stroma, but they assumed the connections were unimportant,” Ligon said. While it is still unknown exactly what happens once the cells are connected, evidence of elevated levels of Cadherin-23 in cancerous cells suggest it may play a role in the early stages of metastasis.