Breast Tumor Center, Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510120, China.
Sci China Life Sci. 2013 Oct;56(10):886-90. doi: 10.1007/s11427-013-4554-5. Epub 2013 Oct 5.
Tumor metastasis is one of the most serious challenges for human cancers as the majority of deaths caused by cancer are associated with metastasis, rather than the primary tumor. Recent studies have demonstrated that tumor cell plasticity plays a critical role in tumor metastasis by giving rise to various cell types which is necessary for tumor to invade adjacent tissues and form distant metastasis. These include differentiation of cancer stem cells (CSCs), or epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and its reverse process, mesenchymal-epithelial transition (MET). A growing body of evidence has demonstrated that the biology of tumor cell plasticity is tightly linked to functions of non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs), especially microRNAs (miRNAs) and long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs). Therefore, understanding the mechanisms how non-coding RNAs regulate tumor cell plasticity is essential for discovery of new diagnostic markers and therapeutic targets to overcome metastasis.
肿瘤转移是人类癌症面临的最严峻挑战之一，因为癌症导致的大多数死亡都与转移有关，而非原发性肿瘤。最近的研究表明，肿瘤细胞的可塑性通过产生各种细胞类型在肿瘤转移中起着关键作用，这些细胞类型对于肿瘤侵袭相邻组织和形成远处转移是必需的。这些类型包括癌症干细胞（CSCs）的分化，或上皮-间充质转化（EMT）及其逆转过程，间充质-上皮转化（MET）。越来越多的证据表明，肿瘤细胞可塑性的生物学与非编码 RNA（ncRNA）的功能密切相关，特别是 microRNAs（miRNAs）和长非编码 RNA（lncRNAs）。因此，了解非编码 RNA 如何调节肿瘤细胞可塑性的机制对于发现新的诊断标志物和治疗靶点以克服转移至关重要。
