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Cancer cells spread aggressively during sleep

The deadly spread of cancer occurs predominantly during sleep, as revealed by an analysis of migrating human tumour cells in the bloodstream. What are the implications of this finding for the treatment of cancer?
  1. Harrison Ball

    1. Harrison Ball is in the Department of Chemical Engineering, Rogel Cancer Center, Bio-interfaces Institute, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48105, USA.

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  2. Sunitha Nagrath

    1. Sunitha Nagrath is in the Department of Chemical Engineering, Rogel Cancer Center, Bio-interfaces Institute, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48105, USA.

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Over the years, cancer has remained one of the greatest threats to human health. Despite many discoveries and much progress in the areas of clinical care and of cancer biology, key gaps in our knowledge of this disease remain to be addressed. Among the many phenomena that occur during the development of cancer, none might be more important to understand than the process, termed metastasis, by which cancer spreads from its tissue of origin to grow elsewhere in the body. Writing in Nature, Diamantopoulou et al.1 present results that show how the aggressiveness of cancer spread can change during sleep.

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Nature 607, 33-34 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-01639-6

References

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Competing Interests

S.N. is one of the named inventors on a patent for Microfluidic Labyrinth Technology granted to the University of Michigan. This IP is licensed to the company Labyrinth Biotech. S.N. is the co-founder with equity interests and a scientific advisory board member for Labyrinth Biotech.

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