title: Premetastatic niche: ready for new therapeutic interventions?
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Bone marrow-derived cells (BMDC) localize in premetastatic niche through chemokines and integrins signals and establish clusters that precede the arrival of even single metastatic tumor cell at distant site. CSCs demonstrate an increased metastatic propensity and would seem likely candidates for the acquisition of migratory capabilities and propagation of heterogeneous tumor cell populations to different target organs. Sonic Hedgehog (SHH), FOXM1 and Notch pathways and signaling molecules such as integrin and chemokine could dictate their fate.
  
  
  METHODS
  In this review, the molecular mechanisms of premetastatic niche onset are summarized.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Premetastatic niche is defined as a fertile microenvironment that forms in metastatic target organ and facilitates the invasion, survival and/or proliferation of metastatic tumor cells, providing a novel mechanism for the promotion of metastasis. Drugs targeting premetastatic niche could represent a new promising therapeutic approach in the treatment of bone metastases.
authors.affiliation: Campus Bio-Medico University, Department of Medical Oncology, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Alice
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zoccoli
authors.forename: Michele
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Iuliani
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Pantano
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Imperatori
authors.forename: Salvatore
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Intagliata
authors.forename: Bruno
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Vincenzi
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Marchetti
authors.forename: Nicola
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Papapietro
authors.forename: Vincenzo
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Denaro
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Tonini
authors.forename: Daniele
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Santini
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D006801:Humans; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D014411:Neoplastic Stem Cells