Tumor microenvironment, a dangerous society leading to cancer metastasis. From mechanisms to therapy and prevention

2007 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adriana Albini
Cells ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 558
Author(s):  
Jin Kyung Seok ◽  
Eun-Hee Hong ◽  
Gabsik Yang ◽  
Hye Eun Lee ◽  
Sin-Eun Kim ◽  
...  

Oxidized phospholipids are well known to play physiological and pathological roles in regulating cellular homeostasis and disease progression. However, their role in cancer metastasis has not been entirely understood. In this study, effects of oxidized phosphatidylcholines such as 1-palmitoyl-2-(5-oxovaleroyl)-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (POVPC) on epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and autophagy were determined in cancer cells by immunoblotting and confocal analysis. Metastasis was analyzed by a scratch wound assay and a transwell migration/invasion assay. The concentrations of POVPC and 1-palmitoyl-2-glutaroyl-sn-glycero-phosphocholine (PGPC) in tumor tissues obtained from patients were measured by LC-MS/MS analysis. POVPC induced EMT, resulting in increase of migration and invasion of human hepatocellular carcinoma cells (HepG2) and human breast cancer cells (MCF7). POVPC induced autophagic flux through AMPK-mTOR pathway. Pharmacological inhibition or siRNA knockdown of autophagy decreased migration and invasion of POVPC-treated HepG2 and MCF7 cells. POVPC and PGPC levels were greatly increased at stage II of patient-derived intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma tissues. PGPC levels were higher in malignant breast tumor tissues than in adjacent nontumor tissues. The results show that oxidized phosphatidylcholines increase metastatic potential of cancer cells by promoting EMT, mediated through autophagy. These suggest the positive regulatory role of oxidized phospholipids accumulated in tumor microenvironment in the regulation of tumorigenesis and metastasis.


2012 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 411-416 ◽  
Author(s):  
YINGHUA XU ◽  
XIAOPING XIA ◽  
HONGMING PAN

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (8) ◽  
pp. 517-519 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marion Curtis ◽  
Abir Mukherjee ◽  
Ernst Lengyel

Cancers ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (10) ◽  
pp. 2984 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maddison Archer ◽  
Navneet Dogra ◽  
Natasha Kyprianou

Prostate cancer is the most common malignancy among men, and progression to metastasis and the emergence of therapeutically resistant disease confers a high mortality rate. Growing evidence implicates inflammation as a driver of prostate cancer development and progression, resulting in increased cancer risk for prostate cancer. Population-based studies revealed that the use of antinflammatory drugs led to a 23% risk reduction prostate cancer occurrence, a negative association that was stronger in men who specifically used COX-2 inhibitors. Furthermore, patients that were taking aspirin had a 21% reduction in prostate cancer risk, and further, long-term users of daily low dose aspirin had a 29% prostate cancer risk reduction as compared to the controls. Environmental exposure to bacterial and viral infections, exposure to mutagenic agents, and genetic variations predispose the prostate gland to inflammation, with a coordinated elevated expression of inflammatory cytokines (IL-6, TGF-β). It is the dynamics within the tumor microenvironment that empower these cytokines to promote survival and growth of the primary tumor and facilitate disease progression by navigating the immunoregulatory network, phenotypic epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), angiogenesis, anoikis resistance, and metastasis. In this review, we discuss the sources of inflammation in the prostate, the functional contribution of the critical inflammatory effectors to prostate cancer initiation and metastatic progression, and the therapeutic challenges that they impose on treatment of advanced disease and overcoming therapeutic resistance. Growing mechanistic evidence supports the significance of inflammation in localized prostate cancer, and the systemic impact of the process within the tumor microenvironment on disease progression to advanced therapeutically-resistant prostate cancer. Rigorous exploitation of the role of inflammation in prostate cancer progression to metastasis and therapeutic resistance will empower the development of precise biomarker signatures and effective targeted therapeutics to reduce the clinical burden and lethal disease in the future.


Cancers ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 1827 ◽  
Author(s):  
Grace L. Wong ◽  
Sara Abu Jalboush ◽  
Hui-Wen Lo

Breast cancer is the most frequent malignancy for women in which one in eight women will be diagnosed with the disease in their lifetime. Despite advances made in treating primary breast cancer, there is still no effective treatment for metastatic breast cancer. Consequently, metastatic breast cancer is responsible for 90% of breast cancer-related deaths while only accounting for approximately one third of all breast cancer cases. To help develop effective treatments for metastatic breast cancer, it is important to gain a deeper understanding of the mechanisms by which breast cancer metastasizes, particularly, those underlying organotropism towards brain, bone, and lungs. In this review, we will primarily focus on the roles that circulating exosomal microRNAs (miRNAs) play in organotropism of breast cancer metastasis. Exosomes are extracellular vesicles that play critical roles in intercellular communication. MicroRNAs can be encapsulated in exosomes; cargo-loaded exosomes can be secreted by tumor cells into the tumor microenvironment to facilitate tumor–stroma interactions or released to circulation to prime distant organs for subsequent metastasis. Here, we will summarize our current knowledge on the biogenesis of exosomes and miRNAs, mechanisms of cargo sorting into exosomes, the exosomal miRNAs implicated in breast cancer metastasis, and therapeutic exosomal miRNAs.


Cells ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 1539 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Ping Lin

Hematogenous and lymphogenous cancer metastases are significantly impacted by tumor neovascularization, which predominantly consists of blood vessel-relevant angiogenesis, vasculogenesis, vasculogenic mimicry, and lymphatic vessel-related lymphangiogenesis. Among the endothelial cells that make up the lining of tumor vasculature, a majority of them are tumor-derived endothelial cells (TECs), exhibiting cytogenetic abnormalities of aneuploid chromosomes. Aneuploid TECs are generated from “cancerization of stromal endothelial cells” and “endothelialization of carcinoma cells” in the hypoxic tumor microenvironment. Both processes crucially engage the hypoxia-triggered epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and endothelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EndoMT). Compared to the cancerization process, endothelialization of cancer cells, which comprises the fusion of tumor cells with endothelial cells and transdifferentiation of cancer cells into TECs, is the dominant pathway. Tumor-derived endothelial cells, possessing the dual properties of cancerous malignancy and endothelial vascularization ability, are thus the endothelialized cancer cells. Circulating tumor-derived endothelial cells (CTECs) are TECs shed into the peripheral circulation. Aneuploid CD31+ CTECs, together with their counterpart CD31- circulating tumor cells (CTCs), constitute a unique pair of cellular circulating tumor biomarkers. This review discusses a proposed cascaded framework that focuses on the origins of TECs and CTECs in the hypoxic tumor microenvironment and their clinical implications for tumorigenesis, neovascularization, disease progression, and cancer metastasis. Aneuploid CTECs, harboring hybridized properties of malignancy, vascularization and motility, may serve as a unique target for developing a novel metastasis blockade cancer therapy.


2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 48
Author(s):  
Khemraj Singh Baghel ◽  
Smrati Bhadauria

Metastatic breast cancer is a stage of breast cancer wherever the disease has spread to distant parts of the body. Onset of metastasis is one of the biggest obstacles to the successful treatment of cancer. The potential of a tumor cell to metastasize profoundly depends on its microenvironment, or “niche” interactions with local components. Macrophages provide tropic support to tumors. Resident macrophages contribute a set of common functions, including their capability to defend against microbial infections, to maintain normal cell turnover and tissue remodelling, and to help repair sites of injury. Macrophages are recruited into the tumor microenvironment where they differentiate to become Tumor-associated-macrophages (TAMs). TAMs are the most abundant subpopulation of tumor-stroma and actively drive cancer cell invasion and metastasis. Cancer metastasis is not solely regulated by the deregulation of metastasis promoting or suppressing genes in cancer cells. Recently the interaction between the stromal cells and cancer cells has been demonstrated to promote cancer metastasis. TAMs can advocate epithelial-mesenchymal transition of cancer cells. Loss of e-cadherin, a major phenomenon of epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT), reduces adhesiveness and releases cancer cells to distant (secondary) sites. A positive correlation between tumor progression and the expression of matrix metallo proteinases (MMPs) in tumor tissues has been demonstrated in numerous human and animal studies. The dynamic interactions of cancer-cells with TAMs actively promote invasion-metastasis cascade through intercellular-signalling-networks that need better elucidation.


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