Scientists believe that they've unlocked another key to breast cancer metastasis: the TRPM7 protein. In animal tests, researchers from the Radbound University Medical Center in the Netherlands and colleagues looked at primary breast tumors removed at diagnosis from 368 women to determine whether the expression of the TRPM7 gene corresponded with breast cancer advance. They found that higher TRPM7 expressions corresponded to substantially less time to recurrence of the disease and metastases. But blocking expression of the protein in breast cancer cells stopped their ability to advance and become metastatic in mice. Their determination: that TRPM7, which helps regulate cell adhesion and migration, is required for metastasis. Details are published in the journal Cancer Research. Release