title: Targeting EMT in cancer: opportunities for pharmacological intervention.
abstract: The spread of cancer cells to distant organs represents a major clinical challenge in the treatment of cancer. Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) has emerged as a key regulator of metastasis in some cancers by conferring an invasive phenotype. As well as facilitating metastasis, EMT is thought to generate cancer stem cells and contribute to therapy resistance. Therefore, the EMT pathway is of great therapeutic interest in the treatment of cancer and could be targeted either to prevent tumor dissemination in patients at high risk of developing metastatic lesions or to eradicate existing metastatic cancer cells in patients with more advanced disease. In this review, we discuss approaches for the design of EMT-based therapies in cancer, summarize evidence for some of the proposed EMT targets, and review the potential advantages and pitfalls of each approach.
authors.affiliation: School of Pharmacy, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.
authors.forename: Felicity M
authors.initials: FM
authors.lastname: Davis
authors.affiliation: School of Pharmacy, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.
authors.forename: Teneale A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Stewart
authors.affiliation: St. Vincent's Institute, Fitzroy, VIC, Australia; University of Melbourne Department of Surgery, St Vincent's Hospital, Fitzroy, VIC, Australia; Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation, Queensland Institute of Technology, Kelvin Grove, QLD, Australia.
authors.forename: Erik W
authors.initials: EW
authors.lastname: Thompson
authors.affiliation: School of Pharmacy, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia. Electronic address: gregm@uq.edu.au.
authors.forename: Gregory R
authors.initials: GR
authors.lastname: Monteith
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D058750:Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition; D006801:Humans; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis / Q000188:drug therapy*; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy*
keywords: Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT); cancer; cancer stem cells; invasion; mesenchymal-epithelial transition (MET); metastasis; therapeutic targets; therapy resistance