Mechanisms of Metastasis in Colorectal Cancer and Metastatic Organotropism: Hematogenous versus Peritoneal Spread.

Mechanisms of Metastasis in Colorectal Cancer and Metastatic Organotropism: Hematogenous versus Peritoneal Spread. J Oncol. 2019;2019:7407190 Authors: Pretzsch E, Bösch F, Neumann J, Ganschow P, Bazhin A, Guba M, Werner J, Angele M Abstract Metastasis is the major cause of death in patients with colorectal carcinoma (CRC). The most common sites of metastasis are the liver and the peritoneum. Peritoneal carcinomatosis is often considered the end stage of the disease after the tumor has spread to the liver. However, almost half of CRC patients with peritoneal carcinomatosis do not present with liver metastasis. This brings up the question of whether peritoneal spread can still be considered as the end stage of a metastasized CRC or whether it should just be interpreted as a site of metastasis alternative to the liver. This review tries to discuss this question and summarize the current status of literature on potential characteristics in tumor biology in the primary tumor, i.e., factors (transcription factors and direct and indirect E-cadherin repressors) and pathways (WNT, TGF-β, and RAS) modulating EMT, regulation of EMT on a posttranscriptional and posttranslational level (miRNAs), and angiogenesis. In addition to tumor-specific characteristics, factors in the tumor microenvironment, immunological markers, ways of transport of tumor cells, and adhesion molecules appear to differ between hematogenous and peritoneal spread. Factors ...
Source: Journal of Oncology - Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: J Oncol Source Type: research