Patients with Fanconi anemia have an elevated risk for squamous cell carcinoma, a highly aggressive head-and-neck cancer. New findings pinpoint the mechanisms linking the two conditions, and also shed new light on how smoking or drinking may elevate anyone鈥檚 cancer risk.
The findings suggest that many of the mutations in cancer may simply be setting in stone a path already forged by the tumor stem cell鈥檚 aberrant dialogue with its surroundings.
When an actin filament bends during cell movement, older actin deforms differently than newer actin, allowing regulatory proteins to tell the two states apart.
