Department of Hepatobiliary and Splenic Surgery, Shengjing Hospital of China Medical University, Heping District, Shenyang 110004, Liaoning Province, China.
Mol Cancer Res. 2011 Dec;9(12):1608-20. doi: 10.1158/1541-7786.MCR-10-0568. Epub 2011 Aug 12.
Cancer metastasis consists of a sequential series of events, and the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and mesenchymal-epithelial transition (MET) are recognized as critical events for metastasis of carcinomas. A current area of focus is the histopathological similarity between primary and metastatic tumors, and MET at sites of metastases has been postulated to be part of the process of metastatic tumor formation. Here, we summarize accumulating evidence from experimental studies that directly supports the role of MET in cancer metastasis, and we analyze the main mechanisms that regulate MET or reverse EMT in carcinomas. Given the critical role of MET in metastatic tumor formation, the potential to effectively target the MET process at sites of metastasis offers new hope for inhibiting metastatic tumor formation.
癌症转移由一系列连续事件组成，上皮-间充质转化 (EMT) 和间充质-上皮转化 (MET) 被认为是癌转移的关键事件。目前的一个关注领域是原发性和转移性肿瘤之间的组织病理学相似性，并且已经推测转移部位的 MET 是转移性肿瘤形成过程的一部分。在这里，我们总结了来自实验研究的越来越多的证据，这些证据直接支持 MET 在癌症转移中的作用，并分析了调节癌中 MET 或逆转 EMT 的主要机制。鉴于 MET 在转移性肿瘤形成中的关键作用，有效靶向转移部位的 MET 过程为抑制转移性肿瘤形成提供了新的希望。
