Department of Oncology and Molecular Medicine, National Institute of Health, Rome, Italy.
Cell Biology Program, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA.
Nat Rev Cancer. 2018 Dec;18(12):758-766. doi: 10.1038/s41568-018-0073-9.
Cell-in-cell structures are reported in numerous cancers, and their presence is an indicator for poor prognosis. Mechanistic studies have identified how cancer cells manage to ingest whole neighbouring cells to form such structures, and the consequences of cell-in-cell formation on cancer progression have been elucidated. In this Opinion article, we discuss how two related cell-in-cell processes, cell cannibalism and entosis, are regulated and how these mechanisms promote cancer progression. We propose that cannibalistic activity is a hallmark of cancer that results in part from selection by metabolic stress and serves to feed aggressive cancer cells.
细胞包含细胞结构在许多癌症中都有报道，其存在是预后不良的指标。机制研究已经确定了癌细胞如何设法摄取整个邻近细胞来形成这种结构，并且已经阐明了细胞包含形成对癌症进展的后果。在这篇观点文章中，我们讨论了两种相关的细胞包含过程，细胞自噬和侵入，是如何被调节的，以及这些机制如何促进癌症的进展。我们提出，自噬活性是癌症的一个标志，部分原因是代谢应激选择的结果，并有助于喂养侵袭性癌细胞。
