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Updated: Dec 5, 2025

A Cancer Cell Spheroid Assay to Assess Invasion in a 3D Setting
Published on: November 20, 2015
Plasticity of cancer cell invasion: Patterns and mechanisms
Jia-Shun Wu1, Jian Jiang2, Bing-Jun Chen1
1State Key Laboratory of Oral Diseases and National Clinical Research Center for Oral Diseases, West China Hospital of Stomatology, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.
Abstract:
Cancer cell migration and invasion are integral components of metastatic disease, which is the major cause of death in cancer patients. Cancer cells can disseminate and migrate via several alternative mechanisms including amoeboid cell migration, mesenchymal cell migration, and collective cell migration. These diverse movement strategies display certain specific and distinct hallmarks in cell-cell junctions, actin cytoskeleton, matrix adhesion, and protease activity. During tumor progression, cells pass through complex microenvironments and adapt their migration strategies by reversible mesenchymal-amoeboid and individual-collective transitions. This plasticity in motility patterns enables cancer cells disseminate further and thus limit the efficiency of anti-metastasis therapies. In this review, we discuss the modes and mechanisms of cancer cell migration and focus on the plasticity of tumor cell movement as well as potential emerging therapeutic options for reducing cancer cell invasion.
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