An emerging tumor invasion mechanism about the collective cell migration

Traditionally, the metastasis has been detected in the late stage of the cancer, which mostly leads to death. The classical opinion about tumor metastasis is that tumor cell migration begins with the single tumor cell and goes through a series of complicated procedures, and lastly arrives and survives at distant tissues and organs. However, emerging studies have found a new migration mechanism called collective cell migration in many cancers. The collective cell migration could move as clusters with the tight cell-cell junction in the tumor microenvironments, toward the traction established by the leader cells. In addition, the collective cell migration has been shown to have higher invasive capacity and higher resistance to the clinical treatments than the single tumor cell migration. Interestingly, the collective clusters of tumor cells have been detected in the early stage of the cancer patient, which has led to the understanding of the significance of early cancer screenings. Here, we reviewed the major principles and guidance of the collective cell migration mechanisms, and the specific manifestations in the different tumors such as breast cancer and lung cancer.