Prof Peter Lay gave an invited seminar at the Cancer Research Centre on 6 June 2024 on factors important in changing phenotype and how cancer cells send and receive message to change cell phenotypes of other cancer cells and non-cancer cells that can lead to tissue wasting. He discussed the roles of metal based drugs, Pt, Ru, Ga, In, on different cancer phenotypes and potential immunogenic responses, including the ability of certain drugs to convert aggressive metastatic phenotypes to non-aggressive phenotypes through irreversible dedifferentiation prior to exerting a cytotoxic effect, which then has the potential to improve drug treatment. Examples of these effects were given for triple negative breast cancer cells, ovarian cancer cells and also the potential for biospectroscopies for rapid phenotyping of cancers for personalised treatments.