Dr Erik Sahai gives an overview of his talk at NCRI 2011 on cancer metastasis, the most life-threatening element of the disease. Dr Sahai proposes in his research that metastasis is the same process that drives the shaping and development of our body, but reactivated in a dangerous and potentially deadly way. The metastasised cells that spread through the body have an increased migratory property, an intrinsic resistance to therapy and an increased ability to spread.

By exploring the idea that metastasis is a reactivation of this natural process, Dr Sahai and his team aim to understand how metastasis begins and how it can be stopped.