Cell
Volume 147, Issue 2, 14 October 2011, Pages 275-292
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Review
Tumor Metastasis: Molecular Insights and Evolving Paradigms

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Metastases represent the end products of a multistep cell-biological process termed the invasion-metastasis cascade, which involves dissemination of cancer cells to anatomically distant organ sites and their subsequent adaptation to foreign tissue microenvironments. Each of these events is driven by the acquisition of genetic and/or epigenetic alterations within tumor cells and the co-option of nonneoplastic stromal cells, which together endow incipient metastatic cells with traits needed to generate macroscopic metastases. Recent advances provide provocative insights into these cell-biological and molecular changes, which have implications regarding the steps of the invasion-metastasis cascade that appear amenable to therapeutic targeting.

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Present address: Department of Cell Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA