Cancer cells can mimic skin or muscle cells in aggressive bowel cancer to enable them to spread around the body, according to a new study from the Institute of Genetics and Cancer and Cancer Research UK Scotland Centre. Bowel cancer cells on the left of the diagram, with a rectangular shape, go through the “shapeshifting” process known as squamous/ mesenchymal transition and emerge with a different appearance akin to skin or muscle cells. Credit: Aslihan Bastem Akan Funded by Cancer Research UK and published in Nature, the research found a key step in some aggressive forms of bowel cancer, involved the cancer cells losing their identity and resembling cells from other parts of the body.This 'shapeshifting' ability of cancer cells to change form, known as cellular plasticity, was found by the team to be an important element in bowel cancer metastasis - when it spreads to other parts of the body and becomes harder to treat.It is hoped identifying this crucial process and preventing it from occurring could help make current treatments for aggressive bowel cancer more effective and prevent the disease from spreading. Bowel cancer kills 16,800 people in the UK (1,700 in Scotland) every year and is increasingly being diagnosed in younger people.A recent study by the American Cancer Society published in The Lancet Oncology showed early-onset bowel cancer rates in adults aged 25-49 are rising in 27 of 50 countries studied and are rising faster in young women in Scotland and England than in young men. With more and more younger people being diagnosed with bowel cancer, it’s vital we understand how this disease grows and develops. Our research has discovered one way that aggressive bowel cancer is able to spread is by 'shapeshifting' to resemble skin or muscle cells rather than bowel cancer cells. This finding will hopefully allow us to develop new treatments to stop these cells changing and prevent the cancer spreading when it becomes much harder to treat. Dr Kevin Myant Group leader, Edinburgh Cancer Research The study, which also received funding from the Medical Research Council and the European Research Council, examined a particular gene called Atrx which was already associated with aggressive forms of bowel cancer.The team established, in mice and human tissue samples, that the loss of this gene results in increased metastatic tumours which spread from the bowel to the liver, lymph nodes (part of the immune system) and the diaphragm.But key to the ability of these cells to spread is that they shed their identity of colonic cells and become like squamous cells which form skin or cells that resemble muscle. Skin cells can tolerate much harsher day-to-day conditions than other types of cells – due to their role and position protecting the outside of the body - so this may be a strategy to help the bowel cancer cells become more robust and enable them to spread around the body. Metastasis is a leading cause of cancer death and a key focus for cancer research, so this finding could be pivotal in halting the progression of aggressive cancer and providing better outcomes for patients. Dr Patrizia Cammareri Lead researcher Bowel cancer, also known as colorectal cancer, is the second most common cause of cancer deaths in the UK. Despite this, treatment options remain limited, particularly for patients who are diagnosed at later stages of the disease. Scotland is disproportionately affected by the disease with around 4,000 people diagnosed each year. The Cancer Research UK Scotland Institute is part of the Cancer Research UK Scotland Centre which includes researchers from both the Universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow. Kevin Myant's Research Group Read the full paper in Nature (external link) The image was created in BioRender. myant, k. (2025) https://BioRender.com/ s5jb7v5 Tags 2025 Publication date 09 Jun, 2025
