ecancermedicalscience

Review

Tumour progression and metastasis

29 Jan 2016
Francisco Arvelo, Felipe Sojo, Carlos Cotte

The two biological mechanisms that determine types of malignancy are infiltration and metastasis, for which tumour microenvironment plays a key role in developing and establishing the morphology, growth and invasiveness of a malignancy. The microenvironment is formed by complex tissue containing the extracellular matrix, tumour and non-tumour cells, a signalling network of cytokines, chemokines, growth factors, and proteases that control autocrine and paracrine communication among individual cells, facilitating tumour progression. During the development of the primary tumour, the tumour stroma and continuous genetic changes within the cells makes it possible for them to migrate, having to count on a pre-metastatic niche receptor that allows the tumour’s survival and distant growth. These niches are induced by factors produced by the primary tumour; if it is eradicated, the active niches become responsible for activating the latent disseminated cells. Due to the importance of these mechanisms, the strategies that develop tumour cells during tumour progression and the way in which the microenvironment influences the formation of metastasis are reviewed. It also suggests that the metastatic niche can be an ideal target for new treatments that make controlling metastasis possible.

Related Articles

Rodrigo Lastra, Patricia Iranzo, Javier-David Benítez-Fuentes, Ana Callejo, Mara Cruellas, Jacobo Gómez Ulla, Isabel Pimentel, José Luis Pérez-Gracia, Marta Ramos, Francisco Gil Moncayo, María Álvarez Alejandro, Marta Gascón, Sergio Martínez Recio, Pilar Rivero, Jorge Bartolomé, Antonio David Lázaro Sánchez, David Fernández Garay, Alicia de Luna Aguilar, Isabel Lorenzo Lorenzo, Joan Brunet, Noemi Reguart, Dario Trapani
Juzzel Ian Zerrudo, Patrick Vincent Aquino, Christian Joseph Tagal, Ma Erica Valdeabella, Christian Norwiz Buenviaje
Clara Pierini, Clara Mariano y Jelicich, Fabiola Bascuñán Acuña, María De San Martín, Aldana Casati, Cecilia Casullo, Marta Díaz Madero, Delfina Grennon Viel, Estefania Marzik, Gabriela Rodriguez, Victoria Viel Temperley
Ochomo Edwin Onyango, Philiph Tonui, Peter Itsura, Elkanah Omenge Orang'o, Kapten Muthoka, Sayo Loice, Benard Ochieng Samba, Barry Rosen, Patrick Loehrer, Susan Cu-Uvin