The path of breast-to-brain cancer metastasis ▫️In 2018, breast cancer was the most common cancer in women worldwide, accounting for about a quarter of all reported cancers. - When breast cancer metastasizes, the brain is a common destination. ▫️The prevalence of breast-to-brain metastases has led scientists to suspect that there is an underlying rationale for why breast cancer cells seek out and seed tumor growths in the brain. ▫️Publishing in Nature, scientists at EPFL's Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Research (ISREC) have discovered that this process involves the N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR), which is found on the cell membranes of neurons and is involved in the transmission of nerve impulses. - The NMDAR is activated by the amino acid glutamate, released from pre-synaptic neurons during synaptic transmission of such impulses.