期刊
PATHOBIOLOGY
卷 79, 期 4, 页码 195-208出版社
KARGER
DOI: 10.1159/000337106
关键词
Breast cancer; Epithelial-mesenchymal transition; Cancer stem cells; Circulating tumor cells
资金
- National Centre for Research and Development [LIDER/13/117/L-1/09/NCBiR/2010]
- European Union
- project 'InnoDoktorant'
The occurrence of either regional or distant metastases is an indicator of poor prognosis for cancer patients. The mechanism of their formation has not yet been fully uncovered, which limits the possibility of developing new therapeutic strategies. Nevertheless, the discovery of circulating tumor cells (CTCs), which are responsible for tumor dissemination, and cancer stem cells (CSCs), required for tumor growth maintenance, shed light on the metastatic cascade. It seems that CTCs and CSCs are not necessarily separate populations of cancer cells, as CTCs generated in the process of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) can bear features characteristic of CSCs. This article describes the mechanisms of CTC and CSC formation and characterizes their molecular hallmarks. Moreover, we present different types of EMT occurring in physiological and pathological conditions, and we demonstrate its crucial role in providing CTCs with a CSC phenotype. The article delineates molecular changes acquired by cancer cells undergoing EMT that facilitate metastasis formation. Deeper understanding of those processes is of fundamental importance for the development of new strategies of early cancer detection and effective cancer treatment approaches that will be translated into clinical practice. Copyright (C) 2012 S. Karger AG, Basel
作者
我是这篇论文的作者
点击您的名字以认领此论文并将其添加到您的个人资料中。
推荐
暂无数据