Chemotherapy may help cancer spread, new study shows

Chemotherapy is the treatment of choice before most cancer surgeries, but new research shows that it could promote more aggressive tumors, The Telegraph reports. The blood vessels of patients receiving chemotherapy drugs have more “entry points” through which cancer cells can get into the blood flow and disperse throughout the body, scientists report today in Science Translational Medicine. In mice with breast cancer, chemotherapy shrinks the primary tumor but boosts the number of cancer cells in the lungs and circulating the body.