Researchers from the Institute of Cancer Research, London, and Barts Cancer Institute discovered how cancer cells navigate this "scaffolding" to escape the tumour and spread throughout the body.
Victoria Sanz Moreno, professor of cancer cell and metastasis biology at the ICR, who led the study, said: “Our research has uncovered the road map that cancer cells follow to break out of a tumour, enabling it to cause a secondary tumour elsewhere in the body.
For the study, funded by Cancer Research UK and Barts Charity, scientists looked at tumour tissue from 99 patients with melanoma skin cancer and breast cancer.
Dr Oscar Maiques, from the Barts Cancer Institute, said: “This study is the culmination of almost a decade of research to understand how cancer cells interact with their surroundings, known as the extracellular matrix.
Professor Kristian Helin, chief executive of the ICR, said: “We know that most cancer deaths occur because cancer has spread from the original tumour to other parts of the body, at which point it becomes much harder to treat.
