Scientists have discovered a new type of stem cell in the spine that appears crucial to resolving a long-standing mystery: why far more cancer cells spread to the spine than to other bones in the body.
One theory held that differences in blood flow might be the cause. But the new findings suggest an alternative that could have implications for cancer care, spine fusion surgery, and osteoporosis, a bone-weakening disease that afflicts about 10 million Americans.
In the journal Nature, researchers from Weill Cornell Medicine and the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York report the discovery of what they have called vertebral skeletal stem cells in the spine. These cells make a protein that acts as a "come here" signal to tumor cells, a finding that raises new treatment possibilities.
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