Dr. Hendrix on Metastatic Cells in Microenvironments

Mary J. C. Hendrix, PhD, president and scientific director, Children's Memorial Research Center, Medical Research Institute Council Professor, Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, Illinois, discusses the approach she took while trying to normalize breast cancer and melanoma metastatic tumor cells using zebra fish and chick embryos.

Her study inserted the cells into early embryonic models. The result was that the cells no longer metastasize, which she explains is because the embryonic microenvironment reprogrammed the cells to be more embryonic and normal like.

The microenvironment and factors that embryonic stem cells produce can reprogram tumor cells.