Signaling events at TMEM doorways provide potential targets for inhibiting breast cancer dissemination.

ABSTRACT: Tumor cell intravasation is essential for metastatic dissemination, but its exact mechanism is incompletely understood. We have previously shown that in breast cancer, the direct and stable association of a tumor cell expressing Mena, a Tie2^hi/Vegf^hi macrophage, and a vascular endothelial cell, creates an intravasation portal, called a "tumor microenvironment of metastasis" (TMEM) doorway, for tumor cell intravasation, leading to dissemination to distant sites. The density of TMEM doorways, also called TMEM doorway score, is a clinically validated prognostic marker of distant metastasis in breast cancer patients. Although we know that tumor cells utilize TMEM doorway-associated transient vascular openings to intravasate, the precise signaling mechanisms involved in TM

SUBMITTER: Surve CR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10802469 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature