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Metastasis

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Metastasis is the spread of cancer cells from the original site to distant locations in the body. Cancer cells can spread via blood vessels (hematogenous) as well as lymph vessels in the body.
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Wnt is a zygotic effect gene that is expressed during very early embryonic development. It regulates various processes in animals starting from early development through the adult stage, such as organogenesis in the embryo and maintenance of neuronal and blood stem cells. Wnt proteins can induce a wide variety of intracellular pathways depending upon the specific abilities of different Wnt ligands to form a complex with shared and cognate receptors in the presence of different co-receptors. The...
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The gene encoding the main signaling molecules of the Wnt signaling pathways (the Wnt proteins) was discovered almost four decades ago by Nüsslein-Volhard and Wieschaus. They identified and originally named the gene "wingless" (wg) after a phenotype discovered during their landmark genetic screen in Drosophila for body pattern defects. At around the same time, another researcher named Harold Varmus found that a murine tumor virus activates the mammalian wg homolog, Int-1, which...
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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 10, 2025

A Robust Discovery Platform for the Identification of Novel Mediators of Melanoma Metastasis
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Evolutionary paths towards metastasis.

Kamila Naxerova1

  • 1Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA. kamila_naxerova@hms.harvard.edu.

Nature Reviews. Cancer
|April 22, 2025
PubMed
Summary

Metastasis evolution in humans remains unclear. This perspective explores how genetic analysis of tumors and metastases can differentiate between pre-determined metastatic potential and stepwise evolution, using metastatic randomness as a key metric.

Area of Science:

  • Oncology
  • Evolutionary Biology
  • Genetics

Background:

  • The evolution of metastasis in humans is less understood than early cancer development.
  • A long-standing debate exists on whether metastatic potential is intrinsic to the tumor or evolves stepwise.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To examine how genetic analyses of primary tumors and matched metastases can distinguish between competing metastasis evolution models.
  • To emphasize the utility of metastatic randomness in assessing metastasis evolution.

Main Methods:

  • Analysis of genetic data from primary tumors and matched metastases.
  • Application of quantitative measures like metastatic randomness.

Main Results:

  • Metastatic randomness can differentiate between random subclone selection and enriched pro-metastatic lineages.

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  • Discussion of probable metastasis evolution trajectories based on tumor metastatic capacity, seeding rates, and host site selection.

    • Conclusions:

    • Genetic analyses provide crucial insights into metastasis evolution models.
    • Advancing human metastasis biology requires applying existing tools to appropriate patient cohorts.