Recent evidence indicates that metastatic capacity is an inherent feature of breast tumours and not a rare, late acquired event. This has led to new models of metastasis. The interpretation of expression-profiling data in the context of these new models has identified the cofilin pathway as a major determinant of metastasis. Recent studies indicate that the overall activity of the cofilin pathway, and not that of any single gene within the pathway, determines the invasive and metastatic phenotype of tumour cells. These results predict that inhibitors directed at the output of the cofilin pathway will have therapeutic benefit in combating metastasis.Tumour cell motility is the hallmark of invasion and an essential step in metastasis 1,2 . The identification of molecular pathways that contribute to tumour cell motility and invasion is essential for understanding how motility is initiated in tumour cells and how the tumour microenvironment contributes to cell migration. The identification of the molecular pathways of tumour cell invasion will provide new diagnostic approaches and targets for the treatment of metastatic cancer. Recent studies using new technologies, including highdensity microarray-based expression profiling, intravital imaging and the collection of invasive tumour cells from live tumours, have started to extend the traditional model of metastasis and supply new diagnostic and therapeutic markers of metastatic disease.According to the traditional model of metastasis, metastases result from a process similar to Darwinian evolution whereby natural selection works on individual tumour cells to select © 2007 Nature Publishing Group Correspondence to: J.C. Condeeli@aecom.yu.edu. Competing interests statementThe authors declare no competing financial interests. for stable genetic changes. The cells so selected are very rare, and the metastatic cells that arise from this progressive selection of stable genetic mutations within the primary tumour cause metastasis late in tumour progression 3 . However, studies of mammary tumours in mice [4][5][6][7] , expression profiling of both whole human breast tumours 8,9 and the invasive subpopulation of tumour cells isolated from rat and mouse mammary tumours [10][11][12] suggest that the metastatic ability of breast tumours is encoded throughout the bulk of the primary tumour, involves transient changes in gene expression and is acquired at much earlier stages of tumour progression than postulated by the traditional model. These results suggest that a Darwinian-like evolution is accompanied by, and may contribute to, microenvironmentinduced transient changes in gene expression that support the invasive and metastatic phenotype. These results have led to new models where the microenvironment initiates the expression of genes that induce cell motility, invasion and metastasis 11,13 . In the 'tumour microenvironment invasion model' it is proposed that oncogenic mutations in tumour cells lead to microenvironments that are potentially encoded throughout the b...

Recently, a consensus has emerged that cofilin severing activity can generate free actin filament ends that are accessible for F-actin polymerization and depolymerization without changing the rate of G-actin association and dissociation at either filament end. The structural basis of actin filament severing by cofilin is now better understood. These results have been integrated with recently discovered mechanisms for cofilin activation in migrating cells, which led to new models for cofilin function that provide insights into how cofilin regulation determines the temporal and spatial control of cell behaviour.

Invadopodia are actin-rich membrane protrusions with a matrix degradation activity formed by invasive cancer cells. We have studied the molecular mechanisms of invadopodium formation in metastatic carcinoma cells. Epidermal growth factor (EGF) receptor kinase inhibitors blocked invadopodium formation in the presence of serum, and EGF stimulation of serum-starved cells induced invadopodium formation. RNA interference and dominant-negative mutant expression analyses revealed that neural WASP (N-WASP), Arp2/3 complex, and their upstream regulators, Nck1, Cdc42, and WIP, are necessary for invadopodium formation. Time-lapse analysis revealed that invadopodia are formed de novo at the cell periphery and their lifetime varies from minutes to several hours. Invadopodia with short lifetimes are motile, whereas long-lived invadopodia tend to be stationary. Interestingly, suppression of cofilin expression by RNA interference inhibited the formation of long-lived invadopodia, resulting in formation of only short-lived invadopodia with less matrix degradation activity. These results indicate that EGF receptor signaling regulates invadopodium formation through the N-WASP–Arp2/3 pathway and cofilin is necessary for the stabilization and maturation of invadopodia.

Invadopodia are a subset of invadosomes that are implicated in the integration of signals from the tumor microenvironment to support tumor cell invasion and dissemination. Recent progress has begun to define how tumor cells regulate the plasticity necessary for invadopodia to assemble and function efficiently in the different microenvironments encountered during dissemination in vivo. Exquisite mapping by many laboratories of the pathways involved in integrating diverse invadopodium initiation signals, from growth factors, extracellular matrix and cell-cell contact in the tumor microenvironment, has led to insight into the molecular basis of this plasticity. Here we integrate this new information to discuss how the invadopodium is an important conductor that orchestrates tumor cell dissemination during metastasis.