Finding out what makes metastatic cancer cells so adaptable
90% of cancer deaths are caused by metastasis. \n\nWhat is metastasis? Why are metastatic cancer cells so hard to target? Are they different than the cancer cells in the primary tumor? What opportunities for treatment are there?\n\nTo answer these questions we spoke with former American Cancer Society grantee Karuna Ganesh, MD, PhD, a physician scientist and Assistant Member at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.\n\nDr. Ganesh is a GI medical oncologist who runs a lab that\u2019s trying to understand what it is about metastatic cancer cells that make them so deadly and how we can target them.\n\n\n1:20 \u2013 A simple, clear explanation of what metastasis is\n\n2:31 \u2013 Why would cancer cells leave their neighbors and seek alternative housing? Moving is stressful; why not just stay put? \n\n5:14 \u2013 On why the concept of \u201cwound healing\u201d is so important in cancer research\n\n9:30 \u2013 How metastasis is wound healing gone wrong\u2014cellular processes used in a good way for wound healing could be used in a bad way in metastasis \n\n14:56 - Are the cancer cells that metastasize the \u2018same\u2019 in their new location as they were in their old one?\n\n18:23 \u2013 What are targeted therapies?\n\n20:14 \u2013 If cancer cells that \u2018move\u2019 and cancer cells that \u2018stay\u2019 are different, how might we use targeted therapies to treat metastatic disease? \n\n21:21 \u2013 Why she\u2019s so excited about the state of the field \n\n23:11 \u2013 The impact of ACS funding on her career\n\n24:49 \u2013 Her message for cancer patients and caregivers