Met and the microenvironment: new insights for ovarian cancer metastasis

Ovarian cancer often has few symptoms, which makes it difficult to detect at an early stage. Therefore, most of the women will already have metastasis at the time of diagnosis. In their search of undercovering the mechanisms underlying ovarian cancer invasion, AK Mitra and collaborators demonstrate that the fibronectin receptor (α5β1-integrin) can directly activate the receptor tyrosine kinase Met, independently of its ligand. By linking the extracellular matrix with Met activation, and the invasion of ovarian cancer cells, Mitra et al confirm the crucial role played by Met in ovarian cancer and open new perspectives in the development of ovarian cancer targeted therapies.