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Cell fate

Transition loses its invasive edge

Nature volume 527, pages 452–453 (2015)Cite this article

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Two studies provide evidence that epithelial tumour cells do not need to transition to a mesenchymal-cell state to form metastases, but that this process does contribute to drug resistance. See Article p.472 & Letter p.525

Cancer often becomes lethal only when cells from the primary tumour disseminate to another organ. The early steps of this highly complex process, called metastasis, have been thought1 to rely on non-motile epithelial tumour cells acquiring characteristics of mesenchymal cells, which are more migratory. This change is known as the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT). The migrating cancer cells then undergo a reverse mesenchymal-to-epithelial transition when they seed a secondary tumour2. Metastases therefore display the same epithelial-cell predominance as primary cancers, leaving no evidence of their transient mesenchymal state. Now, two papers in this issue (Fischer et al.3 and Zheng et al.4) present data that challenge the role of EMT as a crucial effector of cancer metastasis.

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Figure 1: Metastatic potential.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Shyamala Maheswaran and Daniel A. Haber are at the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02114, USA.,

    Shyamala Maheswaran & Daniel A. Haber

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  1. Shyamala Maheswaran
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  2. Daniel A. Haber
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Correspondence to Shyamala Maheswaran or Daniel A. Haber.

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Cancer: The to and fro of tumour spread

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Maheswaran, S., Haber, D. Transition loses its invasive edge. Nature 527, 452–453 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature16313

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