Anti-invasive and anti-metastasis strategies:: New roads, new tools and new hopes

Unfortunately, the anticancer drugs that are used nowadays in the clinic have only limited success. To provide a significant clinical advancement, new concepts have to be introduced to aid the design of new tools for therapy. Cancer is not only restricted to neoplastic cells, but rather it involves an ensemble of protagonists. In addition, the evolution of cancer is extremely complex, since multiple cellular activities are involved. Some key steps in the evolution to a metastatic tumor have been shown to be no useful targets. Targeting the stroma cells, however, could bring a new efficiency in anticancer treatment. Targeting the disorganized tissue architecture at the primary site and the restoration of the cell death program in cancer cells appears to create new possibilities in drug design. Also the cytoskeleton, which represents a dynamic set due to its plasticity and multiplicity, seems to be a promising target in anticancer therapy. Moreover, the evolving knowledge of the role of metastasis suppressor genes in regulating cancer cell growth at the secondary site suggests that they could serve as new targets for therapeutic intervention. This review intends to highlight the unraveling of new therapeutic pathways, and to unveil new powerful research tools for combating metastasis.