Doctors at Tata Memorial Hospital have gathered crucial data on the effectiveness of current cancer treatments by implanting human breast cancer cells in immunodeficient mice to generate tumours. While these treatments have helped many people, research led by Dr Indraneel Mittra and his team flagged that chemotherapy, radiotherapy, or surgery could potentially cause cancer to spread to other parts of the body (metastatic spread).

As cancer cells die, they release something called cell-free chromatin particles, which can transform normal cells into cancerous ones. Some of these particles can even fuse with healthy chromosomes, leading to the formation of new tumours.