Journal
CANCER RESEARCH
Volume 66, Issue 17, Pages 8319-8326Publisher
AMER ASSOC CANCER RESEARCH
DOI: 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-06-0410
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Funding
- NATIONAL CANCER INSTITUTE [T32CA009056] Funding Source: NIH RePORTER
- NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF DIABETES AND DIGESTIVE AND KIDNEY DISEASES [R01DK056216] Funding Source: NIH RePORTER
- NCI NIH HHS [T32CA09056-30] Funding Source: Medline
- NIDDK NIH HHS [DK 56216] Funding Source: Medline
- PHS HHS [W81XWH-04-1-0132, W81XWH-04-1-0113] Funding Source: Medline
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For most carcinomas, progression toward malignancy is accompanied by loss of epithelial differentiation and a shift towards a mesenchymal phenotype. This process, referred to as epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT), exacerbates motility and invasiveness of many cell types and is often considered a prerequisite for tumor infiltration and metastasis. However, there are numerous examples of advanced carcinomas that adopt some mesenchymal features, yet retain characteristics of well-differentiated epithelial cells. We provide a review of these reports and describe mechanisms to explain the morphologic and molecular heterogeneity and plasticity of malignant carcinoma cells, including incomplete EMT, reversion to an epithelial phenotype, and collective migration. We suggest that these mechanisms can manifest in a series of independent and reversible steps and that EMT represents just one mechanism in the global metastatic carcinoma development process.
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