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Tweaking the DNA of myeloid cells curbs cancer spread

Blood cells called myeloid cells can facilitate metastasis — the spread of a tumour to distant organs. Taming these cells with drugs that alter the chemical structure of their DNA limits metastasis in mice.
  1. Ali Ghasemi

    1. Ali Ghasemi is at the Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Research, School of Life Sciences, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.

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  2. Michele De Palma

    1. Michele De Palma is at the Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Research, School of Life Sciences, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.

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Many tumours are successfully treated with surgery. But cancer might recur at the surgical site or in distant organs, so surgery is often followed by treatment termed adjuvant therapy. This limits the risk of relapse by killing cancer cells remaining at the surgical site or those that have already moved elsewhere. However, adjuvant therapy is not always effective. Moreover, it might not prevent certain processes that aid cancer resurgence, such as the recruitment of blood cells called myeloid cells to distant organs, where they can lay the foundation for cancer cells to settle and thrive1. Writing in Nature, Lu et al.2 reveal how the chemical structure of the DNA in the nucleus of myeloid cells is a vulnerability that can be harnessed to target these tumour-promoting cells and limit cancer spread.

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Nature 579, 196-197 (2020)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-00481-y

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