Scientists have discovered that some cancer cells pretend to be “super fit” to fool normal healthy cells into giving them their nutrients, allowing them to expand and spread around the body.

The ICR team discovered that differing levels of extracellular glutamate, a crucial building block and messenger molecule in the body, regulates competition between cells. They found that cells with a lower secretion of glutamate are earmarked as losers when surrounded by normal healthy cells.

When this happens, the loser cell starts to donate its nutrients to its fitter neighbors. In doing this, it actively contributes to the growth of the winner cells and consequently dies in an altruistic fashion.

Importantly, they also found that the process can be exploited by cancer cells, which cheat the system by pretending to be super-fit and increasing their glutamate production. This allows them to expand and spread at the expense of surrounding normal cells.