Epigenetic Regulation of Epithelial to Mesenchymal Transition in the Cancer Metastatic Cascade: Implications for Cancer Therapy.

ABSTRACT: Metastasis is the end stage of cancer progression and the direct cause of most cancer-related deaths. The spreading of cancer cells from the primary site to distant organs is a multistep process known as the metastatic cascade, including local invasion, intravasation, survival in the circulation, extravasation, and colonization. Each of these steps is driven by the acquisition of genetic and/or epigenetic alterations within cancer cells, leading to subsequent transformation of metastatic cells. Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), a cellular process mediating the conversion of cell from epithelial to mesenchymal phenotype, and its reverse transformation, termed mesenchymal-epithelial transition (MET), together endow metastatic cells with traits needed to generate overt metastases in di

SUBMITTER: Liu QL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8117142 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature