General University Hospital of Albacete, Experimental Research Unit, Albacete, Spain.
Expert Opin Biol Ther. 2012 Jun;12 Suppl 1:S199-207. doi: 10.1517/14712598.2012.681370. Epub 2012 Apr 18.
Most cancer deaths are due to the development of metastases and this phenomenon is still a hard challenge for researchers. A number of theories have tried to unravel the metastatic machinery, but definitive results that link the evidence with conventional concepts of metastatic disease remain to be reported.
Considerable evidence suggests interactions between tumor cells and host cells that might be essential for tumor progression and metastasis. Most such evidence is suggestive of fusion phenomena, but some suggest the transfer of cell-free DNA (cfDNA). Such evidence is often ignored or overlooked in the assessment and management of malignancy. In this article, we review the available evidence for the importance of cell fusion and cfDNA in metastasis, and we present some preliminary data that support the hypothesis that tumor progression might be based not only on the division of tumor cells but also on the transformation of normal cells.
Future success in the search for cancer therapies will surely require advances in our knowledge of the pathways of tumor invasion by unexpected mechanisms. Thus, no well supported evidence for roles of cell-free nucleic acids and fusion of cells or of cells with vesicles should be ignored.
大多数癌症死亡是由于转移的发展，而这一现象仍然是研究人员面临的一个难题。许多理论试图揭开转移机制，但将证据与转移性疾病的传统概念联系起来的明确结果仍有待报道。
大量证据表明肿瘤细胞与宿主细胞之间的相互作用可能对肿瘤的进展和转移至关重要。大多数此类证据提示融合现象，但也有一些证据提示无细胞 DNA（cfDNA）的转移。在评估和处理恶性肿瘤时，这些证据经常被忽视或忽略。在本文中，我们回顾了细胞融合和 cfDNA 在转移中的重要性的现有证据，并提出了一些初步数据，支持肿瘤进展不仅基于肿瘤细胞的分裂，还基于正常细胞的转化的假说。
未来在癌症治疗的研究中取得成功，肯定需要我们在了解肿瘤通过意外机制侵袭的途径方面取得进展。因此，任何对游离核酸和细胞融合以及细胞与囊泡融合的作用的证据都不应被忽视。
