Metastasis Term Paper

(p133-134, text). * Define metastasis. * Development of a secondary tumor in a location distant from the primary tumor. * Accomplished via lymphatic channels and circulation. * Trace the pathways for the hematologic and lymphatic spread of metastatic cancer cells. Evidence of disseminate disease presence in lymph that drain the tumor area, tumor cells lodge first in the initial lymph node that receives drainage from the tumor site, once in this lymph node cells may die b/c of the lack of a proper environment, remain dormant for unknown reasons, or grow in a discernible mass, If they survive and grow cancer cells, may spread from more distant lymph nodes to the thoracic duct, and the gain access to the blood vasculature, cancer cells may gain access to the blood vasculature from the initial node and more distant lymph nodes by way of tumor-associated blood vessels that may infiltrate the tumor mass. Sentinel

Cancer, medically called ‘tumorigenesis’ (Thaker, Lutgendorf, & Sood, 2007, p.430) occurs when cells in the body orient themselves for malignant growth. Such cells show ‘self-sufficiency in growth signals’, are ‘insensitive to anti-growth signals’ and have ‘limitless replicative potential’ (Thaker, Lutgendorf, & Sood, 2007, p.430). Once a particular set of cells become malignant, the malignancy can spread to other set of cells in different organs due to ‘crosstalk’ between the affected cells and their surrounding ‘tissues’ and ‘micro-environments’(Thaker, Lutgendorf, & Sood, 2007, p.430).

Cancer is listed as the second most common cause of death in western countries; particularly, in adults. Though it has a long antiquity, its prevalence and incidence today is pervasive and the war on cancer has not been promising. Malignant neoplasia is characterized by uncontrolled growth and the ability to metastasize or spread from the original site. Cancer results from mutations that promote cell proliferation and inhibit cell adhesion (metastasis). According to the National Cancer Institute (2016), “Cancer can also spread regionally,

Cancer cells can intrude other tissues in different forms (sheets, clusters, or singular cells) (INSERT REFERENCE HERE). As the cancer cells manifest, its morphology will change, which includes epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), mesenchymal to amoeboid transition (MAT) and collective to amoeboid transition (CAT).

Metastasis causes the most deaths in cancer yet this process remains one of the most enigmatic aspects of the disease. Metastasis has a two-phase process first phase is the physical translocation of the cancer cell and the second encompasses the cancer cell to develop into a metastatic lesion. Carcinogenesis is known as the formation of cancer, were normal cells transform into cancer cells. This process is by changes at the cellular, genetic and epigenetic level. It reprograms the cell to under go uncontrolled cell division by growing a malignant mass.

Breast cancer metastases are defined when the localised breast cancer spreads to distant sites beyond the breast and axillary lymph nodes. The main sites for breast cancer metastasises include lymph nodes, bone, brain, liver and the lungs (Uematsu, et al 2005). The process of breast cancer metastases is as follows. Firstly, the primary tumour undergoes cell division and growth. This then causes the invasion of the primary tumour into the basement membrane tissue surrounding the cell. The tumour than moves into the bloodstream and/or lymph channels

Introduction: The cell migration assay, also known as “wound healing assay”, is use in order to assets cell migration. Cell migration occurs when cell, receive and response to chemical signal in the environment, this movement is known as “chemotaxis”. In our experiment we use HepG2 cell, in order to assets the rate of migration, but since these are cancer cells, it would be called “metastasis”. Which, refers to the movement of cancer cells form a primary tumor to a secondary site, there are some theories of how this is archive, but the final results is the spread of the cells thru the body thru the circulatory system. In this case, a scratch is made in the wells containing the cells, then incubated in a medium that do not allows proliferation

This ability of malign cancer to make their way across basement membrane and into blood vessels is what makes cancer so fatal and impossible to be cure by surgery alone. The result of metastasis and invasion in normal tissue by cancer cells are often seen as one of the distinctive features of malignancy (Ruoslahti 1996). Even though the ability of invasion and metastasis are one of the hallmarks for cancer, these abilities are not unique to cancer cells as it can also occur during the early development stage of the embryo, in healthy organisms and in many noncancerous diseases (Mareel & Leroy 2003). It does not matter whenever the organism has developed benign or malign cancer, all cancer cells have the ability to disturb the normal cell cycle and threaten the survival of the organism.

Tumor is a complex tissue comprising not only the malignant cells, but the surrounding stroma as well. Stroma is the microenvironment in which a tumor originates and progresses as a malignant disease. The tumor microenvironment plays critical roles in cancer pathogenesis controlling multiple events associated with the tumor development, such as tumor cell proliferation, invasion, metastasis and angiogenesis, and thus could be a focus in developing therapeutic approaches. It also can limit the access of therapeutics to the tumor, alter drug metabolism and contribute to the development of drug resistance. Because of their role in all the stages of tumor development, stromal elements represent attractive therapeutic targets. Manipulating host-tumor

Cancer has been a disease since the dawn of man and even since that moment, we as humans have strived to understand its’ lethality and discover ways to combat it. This proves to be a more difficult task than it seems. Cancer, by definition, is the uncontrolled division of abnormal cells in the body [1]. These divisions can spread into the surrounding tissues as well and cause damage to the regions they locate to. Many of these divisions can lead to solid growths in the body. The growths are usually referred to as tumors [1]. These tumors are masses of tissue that group together.

Approximately 60–70% of patients with systemic cancer will develop spinal metastasis [27], a condition for which a delay in treatment may rapidly degrade the quality of life and shorten survival, as they are at risk of irreversible neurological damages.

Factors that affect the overall survival for patients with metastatic lesions include; the number of nodules; bilateral or unilateral disease, the location of the nodule within the lung; central or peripheral location and the ability to perform a complete resection.

The oxygen supply in cancer cells is determined by their vascular network. As pre-malignant lesions they are highly vascularized but as they keep growing their vascular network becomes very irregular and inefficient. There is a basement membrane that separates the hyperplastic epithelia from the vascular stroma where the blood supply is. As the tumor cells keeps growing the distance from its blood supply increases. This greater distance means that there will be less oxygen and less glucose available. As a result, cancer cells select for traits that will help them have better fitness in a scarce environment. This could be an explanation of why cancer cells select for the more inefficient and toxic glycolytic phynotype.

The first difference in malignant and benign tumors is how they invade cell tissue. Malignant tumors in general, have a tendency to penetrate tissues, whereas benign tumors don’t though they can add pressure to organs resulting in organ damage1. A simplified

Epithelial cells (ECs) are the structural unit of epithelium, a tissue type that is responsible for lining the inner and outer surfaces of the body, as well as formation of many glands [1]. ECs are polarized, with the apical surface facing the lumen and the basal surface anchoring to a specialized extracellular matrix (ECM) layer, known as the basal lamina or basement membrane which separates epithelial cells from underlying tissues (Fig. 1). To maintain the physical and functional integrity of the epithelium, ECs are also laterally linked to one another through cell-to-cell adhesion molecules (CAM), most importantly, members of the cadherin family [2]. As a result, ECs within an ordinary epithelium have very limited mobility. Nevertheless, non-pathological epithelial plasticity does occur, for example, in neurulation – an important morphogenetic movement during embryogenesis [3]. Under these circumstances, ECs tend to move in concert and the integrity of the whole epithelium is not compromised [4].