Cancer transport

But as well as protecting organs, the network may also aid the spread of cancer. When Theise’s team looked at samples taken from people with invasive cancers, they found evidence that cancer cells that had worked their way out of their original tissues could find their way into these channels, which took them directly to the lymphatic system. “Once they get in, it’s like they’re on a water slide,” says Theise. “We have a new window on the mechanism of tumour spread.”