Beschädigte DNA kann sich über röhrenförmige Strukturen zwischen menschlichen Zellen ausbreiten. Wenn Tumore diesen DNA-Transfer-Trick nutzen, könnten sich schädliche Mutationen möglicherweise von Krebszellen auf gesunde Zellen ausbreiten.

Damaged DNA can escape from one human cell and infiltrate another.

Like prisoners tunneling out of jail, this DNA travels [via tubelike structures between neighboring cells](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2026.04.041), scientists report May 19 in *Cell*. Once it has arrived at its new location, the dodgy DNA can start acting up, potentially transferring trouble between cells.

“This is an important and exciting discovery,” says cancer biologist Paul Mischel of Stanford University. The new study, which shows that one human cell can influence another by passing DNA directly, raises all sorts of questions about what role the phenomenon may play in cancer.

If tumors use this DNA transfer trick, harmful mutations could potentially spread from cancer cells to healthy cells, says cancer cell biologist Peter Ly of the Children’s Medical Center Research Institute at UT Southwestern in Dallas. How — or if — these roaming chunks of DNA might contribute to disease is “an area that we’re actively exploring,” Ly says.

[**Read more here**](https://www.sciencenews.org/article/damaged-dna-spread-nanotubes-cells-cancer?utm_source=Reddit&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=rmh) **and the** [**research article here**](https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(26)00508-8?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS0092867426005088%3Fshowall%3Dtrue)**.**

doesn’t this mean that this works the other way too, that this is a possible way of treating genetic damage?