Platelets: tailoring metastasis treatment

The dreadful liaison between platelets and tumor cells was discovered half a century ago. Since then, a plethora of studies have characterized the contribution of platelets to primary tumor development, survival of circulating tumor cells in the bloodstream, and metastatic seeding and outgrowth. Yet, although these provided a deep understanding of how platelets shape cancer progression, the field suffers from a lack of additional knowledge required to design efficient therapeutic strategies. Here, we aim to summarize recent discoveries that identify new ways in which platelets shape metastasis beyond their initial intravascular role. We further discuss platelet-borne molecular targets that could represent new avenues for therapeutically targeting platelets' contribution to metastasis.