Enzyme behind cancer spread found

http://www.nhs.uk/news/2009/03March/Pages/Studyfindscancersp...

One concern I have is that the primary tumor is weakened by the low LOX expression and it is this, rather than its ability to prime remote sites for metastasis, which leads to reduced metastasis. Although this may be partially the case they also inject conditioned media into mice and show that media from wild type tumor cells recruits CD11b+ cells to the lungs consistent with priming sites for metastasis. Media from tumor cells in which LOX expression has been down-regulated or wild-type media with an anti-LOX antibody did not have this effect. They also found cell recruitment with purified LOX although their results suggest there is something else in conditioned media which can increase this effect.

I would like to see them repeat this with tumor cells in which the LOX gene can be turned off once the tumor is established but overall I felt this was a strong piece of work.

It's important not to misinterpret that fact and conclude that preventing metastasis will reduce cancer deaths by 90%.

Sadly it isn't freely available.