Any reasonably genteel meeting of two cells begins with an exchange of chemical messages, more or less like an exchange of business cards between two professionals, only in the cellular case the transaction can quickly get out of hand. As a 2014 article on breast cancer in the journal Cancer Cell suggests, the macrophages release a growth factor that encourages the cancer cells to elongate themselves into a mobile, invasive form poised for metastasis. These elongated cancer cells, in turn, release a chemical that further activates the macrophages—leading to the release of more growth factor,
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