Cancer cell metastasis; perspectives from the focal adhesion

Abstract

Abstract:In almost all cancers, most patients die from metastatic disease and not from the actual primary tumor. That is why addressing the problem of metastasis is of utmost importance for the successful treatment and improved survival of cancer patients. Metastasis is a complex process that ultimately leads to cancer cells spreading from the tumor to distant sites of the body. During this process, cancer cells tend to lose contact with the extracellular matrix (ECM) and neighboring cells within the primary tumor, and are thus able to invade surrounding tissues. Hence, ECM and the ECM-associated adhesion proteins play a critical role in the metastatic process. This review will focus on recent literature regarding interesting and novel molecules at the cell-ECM adhesion sites, namely migfilin, mitogen-inducible gene-2 (Mig-2) and Ras suppressor-1 (RSU-1), that are also critically involved in cancer cell metastasis, emphasizing on data from experiments performed in vitro in breast cancer and hepatocellular carcinoma cell lines as well as human breast cancer tissue samples.Keywords: apoptosis; breast cancer; cell-matrix adhesions; Fascin-1; hepatocellular carcinoma; invasion; metastasis; migfilin; PINCH-1; PUMA; Ras suppressor-1; VASP Citation: Zacharia LC, Gkretsi V. Cancer cell metastasis; perspectives from the focal adhesions. Adv Mod Oncol Res 2015; 1(1): 2-7; http://dx

Is Extracellular Matrix a Castle Against to Invasion of Cancer Cells?

“…Thus, ECM and ECM-associated adhesion proteins play a critical role in the metastatic process [82]. Therefore, Zacharia et al [83] published a review describing roles of the new molecules named migfilin, mitogen-inducible gene-2 (Mig-2), and Ras suppressor-1 (RSU-1) in the cell-ECM adhesion fields. The authors reached the conclusion that cell-ECM adhesion proteins are predisposed to function such as adaptor proteins in the form of multiple proteinprotein interaction in the cell-ECM adhesion fields.…”