A new study by a team of researchers led by Crislyn D'Souza-Schorey, associate professor of biological sciences at the University of Notre Dame, sheds light on the molecular basis by which tumor cells modulate their surroundings to favor cancer progression.

The study elucidates mechanisms involved in the release of microvesicles - small membrane enclosed sacs - from tumor cells that facilitate creation of paths of least resistance allowing tumor cells to migrate. The research offers new insights into how tumor cells invade their surrounding environment and may eventually lead to improved methods for measuring the progression of cancers.

The research paper, which appears week in an early online edition of the journal Current Biology, identifies a unique population of microvesicles that are enriched in proteases- mediators of tissue degradation. The release of these microvesicles provides a mechanism of tissue breakdown and remodeling at distant sites and is distinct from the better-characterized mechanisms involved in tissue degradation adjacent to the leading edge of tumor cells, D'Souza-Schorey notes…