Abstract

Breast cancer starts as a local disease, but it can metastasize to the lymph nodes and distant organs. At primary diagnosis, prognostic markers are used to assess whether the transition to systemic disease is likely to have occurred. The prevailing model of metastasis reflects this view — it suggests that metastatic capacity is a late, acquired event in tumorigenesis. Others have proposed the idea that breast cancer is intrinsically a systemic disease. New molecular technologies, such as DNA microarrays, support the idea that metastatic capacity might be an inherent feature of breast tumours. These data have important implications for prognosis predicition and our understanding of metastasis.

Author affiliations

1. Division of Experimental Therapy, The Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
2. Division of Diagnostic Oncology, The Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Correspondence to: Laura J. van't Veer¹ Email: l.vt.veer@nki.nl.

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