Do White Blood Cells Make Cancer Deadly?

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_Do White Blood Cells Make Cancer Deadly?_

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On a cold, gray Saturday morning at Yale University in February 1993,

instead of just reading his laboratory's article in a cancer journal and

scanning past the rest--cancer is a profoundly wide field, and there is

much to read--cancer biologist Pawelek made time to finish the

entire issue.

That simple decision changed the course of his research, toward a

controversial explanation for the deadliest aspect of the

disease--namely, why it spreads.

The issue contained a letter from three Czech doctors asking whether the

fusion of tumor cells and white blood cells could cause cancers to

spread, or metastasize. At the time, Pawelek was also reading a book by

evolutionary biologist Lynn Margulis, who pioneered the idea that life

on earth was revolutionized by ancient cells engulfing one another and

fusing together, forming hybrids that had better chances at survival.