title: Molecular insights into tumour metastasis: tracing the dominant events.
abstract: Metastasis of malignant cells to vital organs remains the major cause of mortality in many types of cancers. The tumour invasion-metastasis cascade is a stepwise and multistage process whereby tumour cells disseminate from primary sites and spread to colonize distant sites through the systemic haematogenous or lymphatic circulations. The general steps of metastasis may be similar in almost all tumour types, but metastasis to different tissues seems to require distinct sets of regulators and/or an 'educated' microenvironment which may facilitate the infiltration and colonization of tumour cells to specific tissues. Moreover, interactions of tumour cells with stromal cells, endothelial cells, and immune cells that they encounter will also aid them to gain survival advantages, evade immune surveillance, and adapt to the new host microenvironment. Due to the high correlation between tumour metastasis and survival rate of patients, a deeper understanding of the molecular participants and processes involved in metastasis could pave the way towards novel, more effective and targeted approaches to prevent and treat tumour metastasis. In this review, we provide an update on the regulation networks orchestrated by the dominant regulators of different stages throughout the metastatic process including, but not limited to, epithelial-mesenchymal transition in local invasion, resistance to anoikis during migration, and colonization of different distant sites. We also put forward some suggestions and problems concerning the treatment of tumour metastasis that should be solved and/or improved for better therapies in the near future. Copyright © 2016 Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
authors.affiliation: Life Sciences Institute and Innovation Center for Cell Signaling Network, Zhejiang University, 866 Yuhangtang Road, Hangzhou 310058, PR China.
authors.forename: Ke
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Jin
authors.affiliation: Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology, College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, PR China.
authors.forename: Tong
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Cell Biology, Cancer Genomics Centre and Centre for Biomedical Genetics, Leiden University Medical Center, Postbus 9600, 2300, RC, Leiden, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Hans
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: van Dam
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Cell Biology, Cancer Genomics Centre and Centre for Biomedical Genetics, Leiden University Medical Center, Postbus 9600, 2300, RC, Leiden, The Netherlands.|Institutes of Biology and Medical Science, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, PR China.
authors.forename: Fangfang
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Life Sciences Institute and Innovation Center for Cell Signaling Network, Zhejiang University, 866 Yuhangtang Road, Hangzhou 310058, PR China.|Department of Molecular Cell Biology, Cancer Genomics Centre and Centre for Biomedical Genetics, Leiden University Medical Center, Postbus 9600, 2300, RC, Leiden, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Long
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D023102:Anoikis / Q000235:genetics; D002465:Cell Movement; D058750:Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis / Q000235:genetics*; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology; D051880:Receptors, Notch / Q000235:genetics*; D015398:Signal Transduction; D017154:Stromal Cells / Q000502:physiology; D016212:Transforming Growth Factor beta / Q000235:genetics*; D060449:Wnt Signaling Pathway / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D051880:Receptors, Notch; D016212:Transforming Growth Factor beta
keywords: Notch; Wnt; circulating tumour cell; epithelial-mesenchymal transition; mesenchymal-epithelial transition; signal transduction; targeted therapy; tissue tropism; transforming growth factor-β; tumour metastasis