Overview
Metastasis is an extraordinarily complex process. To successfully colonize a secondary site a cancer cell must complete a sequential series of steps before it becomes a clinically detectable lesion. These steps typically include separation from the primary tumor, invasion through surrounding tissues and basement membranes, entry and survival in the circulation, lymphatics or peritoneal space and arrest in a distant target organ. These are usually, but not always [1], followed by extravasation into the surrounding tissue, survival in the foreign microenvironment, proliferation, and induction of angiogenesis, all the while evading apoptotic death or immunological response (Figure (Figure1;1; reviewed in [2]).
Sponser
Munguti J.
Principal Investigator
Abstract
Metastasis is an enormously complex process that remains to be a major problem in the management of cancer. The fact that cancer patients might develop metastasis after years or even decades from diagnosis of the primary tumor makes the metastatic process even more complex. Over the years many hypotheses were developed to try to explain the inefficiency of the metastatic process, but none of these theories completely explains the current biological and clinical observations. In this review we summarize some of the proposed models that were developed in attempt to understand the mechanisms of tumor dissemination and colonization as well as metastatic progression.
