How cancer puts other cells to work

Tumours have developed many strategies and tricks to gain advantages in the body. Led by cell biology professor Sabine Werner, researchers at ETH Zurich have now discovered another surprising trick that certain tumours resort to in ensuring their survival and growth.

In a new study published in the journal Nature Cancer, the biologists show that skin cancer cells are able to transfer their mitochondria to healthy connective tissue cells (fibroblasts) in their immediate vicinity. Mitochondria are the cell compartments that provide energy in the form of the molecule ATP.

The cancer cells use tiny tubes made of cell membrane material to…