Department of Pathophysiology, Medical College, Nanchang University, 461 Bayi Road, Nanchang 330006, China.
Queen Mary College of Nanchang University, Nanchang 330006, China.
Theranostics. 2023 Apr 17;13(7):2301-2318. doi: 10.7150/thno.82700. eCollection 2023.
Breast cancer (BC) is one of the most commonly diagnosed cancers and the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in women worldwide. Metastasis is a major contributor to high cancer mortality and is usually the endpoint of a series of sequential and dynamic events. One of the critical events is forming a pre-metastatic niche (PMN) that occurs before macroscopic tumor cell invasion and provides a suitable environment for tumor cells to colonize and progress into metastases. Due to the unique characteristics of PMN in cancer metastasis, developing therapies to target PMN may bring new advantages in preventing cancer metastasis at an early stage. Various biological molecules, cells, and signaling pathways are altered in BC, regulating the functions of distinctive immune cells and stromal remodeling, inducing angiogenesis, and effect metabolic reprogramming and organotropism to promote PMN formation. In this review, we elucidate the multifaceted mechanisms contributing to the development of PMN in BC, discuss the characteristics of PMN, and highlight the significance of PMN in providing potential diagnostic and therapeutic strategies for BC metastasis, which may bring promising insights and foundations for future studies.
乳腺癌（BC）是全球最常见的癌症之一，也是导致女性癌症相关死亡的主要原因。转移是导致高癌症死亡率的主要因素，通常是一系列连续和动态事件的终点。其中一个关键事件是形成转移前生态位（PMN），它发生在宏观肿瘤细胞侵袭之前，并为肿瘤细胞定植和进展为转移提供了合适的环境。由于 PMN 在癌症转移中的独特特征，开发针对 PMN 的治疗方法可能在早期预防癌症转移方面带来新的优势。BC 中各种生物分子、细胞和信号通路发生改变，调节独特免疫细胞的功能和基质重塑，诱导血管生成，并影响代谢重编程和器官趋向性，促进 PMN 的形成。在这篇综述中，我们阐明了导致 BC 中 PMN 形成的多方面机制，讨论了 PMN 的特征，并强调了 PMN 在提供 BC 转移的潜在诊断和治疗策略方面的重要性，这可能为未来的研究带来有希望的见解和基础。
