Funded by GMR and delivered by The University of Queensland

About

Some cancer cells can break away from the original tumour, float around the body, and then come back to the same tumour to settle in again. This is called tumour self-seeding— and exploring this helps scientists understand how cancer grows and spreads.

Researchers have discovered a special kind of cell in the main tumour called a tumour self-seeded cell (TSC). These may be responsible for making the tumour grow faster and possibly return after treatment. Importantly, it is difficult to study them properly because animal models used so far have not been good at tracking how these cells leave, come back, and rejoin the tumour.

Opportunities and outcomes

The project team is working to understand what TSCs do, how they behave, and how they help the tumour grow and change. This project aims to build a better model, and more accurate simulation, and is using liver cancer to test the idea.

With this knowledge, we hope to create new treatments that stop these cells from making cancer worse and even improve how current cancer treatments work.