Professor Qin Lunxiu from Huashan Hospital Affiliated to Fudan University, Professor Fang Weigang from Peking University Health Science Center, and Academician Bian Xiuwu from the First Affiliated Hospital of Army Medical University edited Modern Tumor Metastasis: Basic and Clinical Studies, which was published by Fudan University Press.
The outstanding features of this book are: first, it takes into account both clinical and basic, which not only summarizes the progress of related cell biology, molecular genetics, immunity, metabolism and other basic frontier fields in the metastasis process, but also systematically expounds the clinical rules, diagnosis and clinical research progress of common tumor metastasis in clinical practice; Second, the content is professional and rigorous, and the author of this book brings together nearly 100 basic researchers and clinicians with senior professional titles and outstanding achievements in this field, and is reviewed by well-known domestic experts. Third, keep up with the research frontier and take the research progress at home and abroad in the past 10 years as the main line. It has high reference significance for basic researchers and clinicians.
The following is an excerpt from the preface and introduction to the book
The word metastasis comes from Latin and originally meant "to move, to change". Refers to the spread of a tumour from one primary site to another part of the body. Metastasis is the most important and fatal malignant phenotype of malignant tumors, and it is the most important cause of failure and death in cancer patients. Therefore, the prevention and treatment of tumor metastasis is not only a clinical problem, but also a major scientific problem, research hotspot and difficulty.
The history of research into tumor metastasis can be traced back hundreds of years ......In 1889, the British scholar Paget proposed the famous "seed-soil principle". In 1928, the American pathologist Ewing (1866-1943) challenged the "seed-soil theory", arguing that the anatomy of the body's vascular system determines the direction of tumor cell metastasis, which is the so-called "mechanical hypothesis". After a long period of exploration and repeated verification, the principle of "seed-soil theory" has been recognized by most scholars, and its connotation has been greatly enriched.
In the past 100 years of transfer research, the important findings and perspectives of milestones are as follows.
In the 50s of the 20th century, Zeidman et al. created an animal model of metastasis by injecting tumor cells into the blood vessels of mice and other animals, and found that not all injected tumor cells can form metastases, that is, not all tumor cells have metastatic potential.
In the 70s of the 20th century, Fidler repeatedly injected B16 mouse melanoma into mice to screen out tumor cell subsets with higher metastatic potential; Through a series of delicate experiments, the metastatic subclones that can be localized to specific target organs were isolated. Based on the results obtained, he proposed the concept of heterogeneity in tumor metastases. Fiedler's series of experimental results also provide strong support for the "seed-soil theory".
It was also in the 70s of the 20th century that Nowell et al. proposed that the instability of the tumor cell genome is the driving force that drives the continuous evolution of tumor cells and finally obtains the metastatic phenotype. With the deepening of research at the molecular level, it has become a consensus that the transfer process is regulated by multiple transfer genes and transfer inhibitory genes and involves the whole process of transfer.
The discovery of tumor angiogenesis inhibitors and their important role in invasion and metastasis have been fully recognized, and have become important targets for anti-metastasis.
The idea that cancer stem cells (CSCs) are the initiating cells of metastasis has been proposed and confirmed, which has opened up new ideas for finding new strategies against metastasis.
The epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) enables tumor cells to move and invade more effectively, and is closely related to cancer stem cells.
The proposal and validation of the pre-metastatic niche (PMN) theory has well explained how tumor cells regulate the target organ microenvironment and successfully establish the mechanism of metastasis. The role of cellular exosomes in it has also been revealed.
Tumor cells have unique metabolic characteristics, including the composition, function and distribution of mitochondria, which play a role in promoting or inhibiting metastasis, which is becoming a new research hotspot.
The study of the role of hypoxia in promoting tumor metastasis and its mechanism is of great significance for elucidating the initiation of metastasis.
The discovery of tumor cell dormancy and the mechanism behind it has preliminarily solved the problem that some patients will metastasize again for many years after complete clinical remission, and also provided a target for solving the mystery of how tumor cells escape from the host after reaching the target organ.
After years of focusing on the role of tumor cell properties and changes in invasion and metastasis, it has been found that the interaction between tumor cells and the host microenvironment may be more important, and even affect the development of anti-metastasis** strategies.