A neuro - oncology research team at Dartmouth's Norris Cotton Cancer Center, led by the Director Mark A. Israel, MD with first author Gilbert J. Rahme, PhD, recently identified the transcription factor Id4 as a suppressor of
tumor cell invasion in glioblastoma.
University of Hawai'i Cancer Center researchers have identified an essential driver
of tumor cell invasion in glioblastoma, the most aggressive form of brain cancer that can occur at any age.
The researchers have shown that this marker protein changes myoepithelial cells in breast tissue to
promote tumor cell invasion in vitro and enhances mammary tumor growth in vivo.
However, when these myeloid cells migrate to tumor sites, they can differentiate to tumor associated macrophages (TAMs), which can in turn stimulate the formation of blood vessels in tumors and promote
enhanced tumor cell invasion and motility.
The epithelial - to - mesenchymal transition (EMT) and the reverse process (the mesenchymal - to - epithelial transition [MET]-RRB- have been shown to be associated
with tumor cell invasion and metastasis in different carcinomas.
This confirmed that the gene regulatory switch is highly specific to one cell type, monocytes and that
tumor cell invasion in the absence of this population had nothing to do with deregulated macrophage activity.
Unrestrained epithelial cell extrusion has been linked to
tumor cell invasion and metastasis in other studies.
Hence, BH3 mimetics might represent an attractive approach of eliminating resistant subpopulations of cancer cells, thereby targeting
both tumor cell invasion and cancer relapse.
Breast Cancer: CXCR4 plays an important role in breast cancer progression by enhancing tumor growth,
tumor cell invasion, and metastasis to bone and lung.
The first step is to tunnel through the surrounding matrix, considered «a critical event in
tumor cell invasion.»