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Researchers at the University of East Anglia (UK) have proposed an explanation for why some childhood tumors spread aggressively around the body despite having relatively few genetic faults. For years, experts believed cancers become more dangerous by accumulating genetic mutations that allow them to invade new tissues and evade treatment. But a new paper shows how childhood cancers may not always need extra mutations to spread.

Instead, the authors say cancer cells may be able to "shape-shift" into different cellular states—switching between behaviors that help them grow, survive treatment and spread to other organs.

Crucially, the authors say that the process may be reversible. And they hope that their work could one day lead to new types of treatment, or even modifications to treatments already available.

Lead researcher Dr. Darrell Green, from UEA's Norwich Medical School, said, "Metastasis, where cancer spreads from its original site to other parts of the body, is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in children.

"But scientists have struggled to explain why some childhood cancers spread aggressively despite having relatively few genetic mutations, which is apparently the opposite biology to cancer in adults.

"Many childhood cancers arise from cells that are still closely linked to developmental programs used during early life.

"These programs normally allow cells to move around the developing body, adapt to changing environments and become different tissue types.

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