Colon cancer cells may change identity to metastasize

Loss of GATA6—a transcription factor that controls which genes are turned on or off—can reprogram colorectal cancer cells into more primitive, adaptable states that can then spread to the liver and establish new tumors, according to Weill Cornell Medicine and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) researchers. Understanding how cancer cells acquire the ability to metastasize could reveal new ways to stop this deadly process.