Who:

Maricel V. Maffini, Ana Soto, Janine M. Calabro, Angelo A. Ucci, Carlos Sonnenschein Researchers at the Department of Anatomy and Cellular Biology at Tufts University School of Medicine and the Department of Pathology, Tufts-New England Medical Center -- Boston, MA

What:

"The Stroma as Crucial Target in Rat Mammary Gland Carcinogenesis"

Where:

Study published in most recent issue of Journal of Cell Science, Vol. 117, Issue 8 - http://jcs.biologists.org/

When:

Article and commentary available now

Why:

The editors of the journal provide this overview, "In this Issue": "Cancer without mutation? A simple view of cancer is that cells become transformed because they acquire critical mutations that release them from growth constraints and allow them to become invasive. But are things that simple can genetically normal cells become cancerous?....Maricel Maffini and co-workers provide strong evidence that epithelial cells can become malignant as a consequence of alterations in surrounding tissue rather than mutations in their own DNA."

In a commentary entitled "Watch thy neighbor, cancer is a communal affair" authors Valerie M. Weaver and Penney Gilbert of the Department of Pathology and Institute for Medicine and Engineering, University of Pennsylvania "discuss this idea in the context of recent studies that suggest that cancer is perhaps better viewed as a disease of tissue organization rather than one caused by accumulations of mutations in individual cells."

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Contact: Peggy Hayes
peggy.hayes@tufts.edu
617-636-3707
Tufts University
11-Mar-2004