More from the article ...

... This is an amazing discovery, and one that could move scientists closer to solving the inherently difficult question at the heart of all cancer research: Why the heck does cancer even exist?

Cancers ought to be less common than they are, especially metastatic cancers that migrate to colonize areas of the body that have nothing to do with their original cell type. Various sorts of environmental toxicity have been invoked over the years to explain the prevalence of cancers overall, but it should still be particularly difficult for cancerous cells to settle into the wrong organ.

And yet, we see quite a variety of such cancers in the population. It's almost like something is making it easier for cancer cells to take over seemingly unrelated areas, even though the environment ought to be inhospitable to their particular needs.

That's exactly the mechanism observed here.

Researchers accidentally stumbled upon a picture of a cancer cell connected to a neighboring cell of a different type by a thin thread of unknown origin. ...