Good point, Cell is the very top tier too, maybe just a tiny shade "below". Though I'd still expect the gigantic paradigm shifting breakthroughs to be targeted to the big two. And by the way nothing wrong with research in other journals, it's just not as likely to be seen - at the time of submission - as earth shattering. Of course, looking back in retrospect lots of great research might be published in smaller journals.

Just a heads up - a well supported, radical breakthrough in cancer biology is very likely going to be published in one of two journals, either Nature or Science. If the scientists performing the work think they have a rigorous, world changing paper, they'll aim to publish in one of these two. Check the link to the original paper when reading these summaries.

> Why don’t the surrounding cells say ‘hey, you’re going crazy, stop!’?

A cancerous cell might develop a mutation that would reduce the amount of a protein on it's surface that would normally be recognized by immune cells trying to kill cancerous cells.

No two cancers are exactly alike on a genetic level, even though may have the same medical label. Each is a unique collection of many mutations that lead to a cell population that can replicate, invade, evade immune detection, etc.

Cells are always having a few mutations in their DNA, but there are systems in the cell that will recognize excess mutations and kill the cell before it can cause problems.

Things can really start to get out of hand when you get mutations in those proofreading systems themselves. Then you get a set of cells that can start mutating freely. Eventually natural selection takes over and the mutant cells keep accumulating more and more mutations that help them replicate and spread, leading to cancer.