Dr. Sakari Vanharanta is a principal investigator at MRC Cancer Unit, University of Cambridge, where he studies cancer metastasis.

In this episode, you will learn:

• What the seed and soil hypothesis is in the study of cancer, and why it could shed light on how cancers are able to grow and develop in various parts of the body
• What types of heritable epigenetic mechanisms may be at play in the development of cancer
• What type of evidence there is for the effectiveness of chemotherapy and radiation on cancer metastasis

How does cancer spread to other parts of the body? What's required in order for the cells of a primary tumor to travel to and grow in another location? These are just a couple of the questions answered by Dr. Vanharanta in today's podcast.

His research is focused on understanding how genes and mutations in cancer function, and how mutations in cancer interact with other cellular pathways to drive metastasis. This is important, because metastasis is the cause of the vast majority of cancer-related deaths. If more information can be gathered, prevention of cancer or a cancer treatment might be possible.

Metastases are still poorly understood, but there is a significant drive to better understand it, since doing so has implications for personalized and targeted cancer therapeutics. Dr. Vanharanta believes that further research on the role of genomics in cancer could lead to findings which have a huge impact in the field of cancer research, and he shares his insight on the matter.

Press play to hear the full conversation.

Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK