Abstract

Metastases are the main cause of cancer-associated death and it seems surprising that there remain so many questions relating to the biology of metastasis. For example, how and why do metastases exhibit variations in tropism and latency? When are metastases seeded? What traits are required in tumour cells and the microenvironment to disseminate and seed a metastasis? How is one cell capable of so many sequential processes? And how might we predict and prevent or treat metastatic dissemination? Many of these questions are receiving renewed attention as new data provide insights into the biology of a metastatic tumour.