Novel technologies and recent advances in metastasis research

In this review we have attempted to summarize some of the recent developments in using novel technologies to unravel the molecular mechanisms of tumor progression, in particular the formation of tumor metastasis. In order to push forward the frontiers in cancer research, it is obvious that several fields have to be further developed and interconnected: (1) clinical, epidemiological and pathological studies which mainly use innovative technologies, including microarray technology and nanotechnology to determine as many parameters as possible, (2) the development of improved and suitable bioassays and better animal models and (3) the use of novel computation and bioinformatics methods to sample and integrate the exponentially growing sets of data coming from such investigations. Fashionable as scientists are, this new endeavor may be called systems biology.