Journal of the National Cancer Institute Advance Access originally published online on December 9, 2008
JNCI Journal of the National Cancer Institute 2008 100(24):1752-1754; doi:10.1093/jnci/djn456
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© Oxford University Press 2008.
NEWS |
Mechanisms of Metastasis: Theories Focus on Microenvironment, Host Factors, Genes
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In 1889, Stephen Paget, an English surgeon, hypothesized that as plant seeds need congenial soil to grow, cancer cells can proliferate only when they reside in a hospitable organ. Although few cancer researchers would have contested the idea that surrounding tissue influences tumor growth in recent decades, they have just recently begun to tackle the mechanisms by which context drives metastasis.
"Cancer research, in the 30 years from 1970 to 2000, focused almost exclusively on cell-autonomous phenomena—what's happening inside the cancer cell," said Robert Weinberg, Ph.D., a founding member of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and professor of biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. "And now we begin to understand that those are only part of the equation.
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"That is a major paradigm shift, not only for the field of metastasis research, but for cancer research," he said.
Evidence for the new
Tumor–Host Signaling
Host Factors
Metastasis Suppressor Genes
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