Identifying the signals used by breast cancer cells to spread to other places in the body

The problem

Cancer’s ability to spread across the body and form new tumours, known as metastasis, is a major reason why it can be so deadly. The spread of breast cancer alone is responsible for around 11,500 deaths every year in the UK.

Studying the spread of cancer is an incredibly complex process and uses many animals. Just one experiment can involve the use of dozens of mice.

Past studies suggest that cancer cells ‘talk’ to healthy cells, and each other, before spreading to prepare new tumour sites for growth. This communication relies on molecules (like DNA, RNA, and proteins) sent through the bloodstream to deliver messages to cells in different locations.

Imagine the cancer cells are reaching out to distant healthy cells to try and recruit them to support them on arrival. It’s similar to sending out leaflets to a neighbourhood about a cause before following up with door-to-door canvassing.

To stop the cancer cells being able to recruit any healthy cells, we need to:

Figure out the messages on the leaflets and why these are making cells change.
Find out how the leaflets are being printed and halt their production.
Get rid of any leaflets left in the neighbourhood and stop more being delivered.
Stop any leafleteers from following up in-person.

The project

Hannah’s team have developed a cell-based model that doesn’t use animals. They use:

Breast cancer cells, representing the original tumour.
Lung cells, representing where the cancer might spread.

These cells are grown in separate, but connected, chambers allowing them to ‘talk’ to each other through important signals. This mimics how cancer cells might communicate with other parts of the human body.

Using this model, Hannah’s team found:

A group of biological molecules (known as cytokines) travelling between the breast cancer cells and lung cells.
Multiple proteins that may play a role in how these cells behave.

Now, the team are developing ways to find other important proteins and to uncover how these signals influence cell behaviour. This could help them block the ‘leaflets and conversations’ that help cancer spread and develop new treatments to prevent the spread of cancer. All without the use of animals!

The potential

Hannah’s model offers a huge leap forward because most cancer research still relies on giving mice cancer, which isn’t an accurate representation of humans and has major ethical considerations.

Over 89,000 procedures used mice for cancer research in the UK in 2022 alone. We want to help that number get to zero.

The model has already allowed Hannah and her team to start replacing animals in their own lab. Hannah and her team believe that, over the next five years, this model alone could replace the use of 6,350 mice in the UK.