A melanoma patient with macrophage-cancer cell hybrids in the primary tumor, a lymph node metastasis and a brain metastasis.

In 1911, German gynecologist Prof. Otto Aichel made the remarkable proposal that metastasis occurs following leucocyte-tumor cell fusion and hybrid formation. He stated that a new hybrid cell would form with traits of both “mother cells”1. Today, that would refer to gene expression patterns from both fusion partners in the same hybrid cell. At least some hybrids would express the leukocytic traits of motility, chemotaxis and homing along with the de-regulated cell division of the cancer cell.

Source: Cancer Genetics and Cytogenetics - May 28, 2021 Category: Genetics & Stem Cells Authors: Greggory S. LaBerge, Eric Duvall, Zachary Grasmick, Kay Haedicke, Anjela Galan, John Pawelek Source Type: research