title: Neuronal and metastatic cancer cells: Unlike brothers.
abstract: During development neuronal cells traverse substantial distances across the developing tissue. In the mature organism, however, they are bound to the confines of the nervous system. Likewise metastatic cancer cells have the potential to establish auxiliary tumor sites in remote tissues or entirely different organs. The epithelial-mesenchymal transition is the transformation of proliferative cancer cells into a highly invasive state, which facilitates the crossing of tissue boundaries and migration across various environments. This review contributes a first look into the parallels and contrasts between physical aspects of neuronal and metastatic cancer cells.
authors.affiliation: Soft Matter Physics Group, Institut für experimentelle Physik I, Leipzig University, Linnestraße 5, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Heine
authors.affiliation: Department of Bioengineering, McGill University, Montreal H3A 0C3, Canada.
authors.forename: Allen
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ehrlicher
authors.affiliation: Soft Matter Physics Group, Institut für experimentelle Physik I, Leipzig University, Linnestraße 5, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany. Electronic address: jkaes@physik.uni-leipzig.de.
authors.forename: Josef
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Käs
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D058750:Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D009474:Neurons / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism
keywords: Cancer; Cytoskeleton; Filopodia; Invasiveness; Motility; Neuronal