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Revisiting epithelial‐mesenchymal transition in cancer metastasis: the connection between epithelial plasticity and stemness

Epithelial‐mesenchymal transition (EMT) is an important process in embryonic development, fibrosis, and cancer metastasis. During cancer progression, the activation of EMT permits cancer cells to acquire migratory, invasive, and stem‐like properties. A growing body of evidence supports the critical...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Liao, Tsai‐Tsen, Yang, Muh‐Hwa
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5496497/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28649800
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/1878-0261.12096
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author Liao, Tsai‐Tsen
Yang, Muh‐Hwa
author_facet Liao, Tsai‐Tsen
Yang, Muh‐Hwa
author_sort Liao, Tsai‐Tsen
collection PubMed
description Epithelial‐mesenchymal transition (EMT) is an important process in embryonic development, fibrosis, and cancer metastasis. During cancer progression, the activation of EMT permits cancer cells to acquire migratory, invasive, and stem‐like properties. A growing body of evidence supports the critical link between EMT and cancer stemness. However, contradictory results have indicated that the inhibition of EMT also promotes cancer stemness, and that mesenchymal‐epithelial transition, the reverse process of EMT, is associated with the tumor‐initiating ability required for metastatic colonization. The concept of ‘intermediate‐state EMT’ provides a possible explanation for this conflicting evidence. In addition, recent studies have indicated that the appearance of ‘hybrid’ epithelial‐mesenchymal cells is favorable for the establishment of metastasis. In summary, dynamic changes or plasticity between the epithelial and the mesenchymal states rather than a fixed phenotype is more likely to occur in tumors in the clinical setting. Further studies aimed at validating and consolidating the concept of intermediate‐state EMT and hybrid tumors are needed for the establishment of a comprehensive profile of cancer metastasis.
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spelling pubmed-54964972017-07-18 Revisiting epithelial‐mesenchymal transition in cancer metastasis: the connection between epithelial plasticity and stemness Liao, Tsai‐Tsen Yang, Muh‐Hwa Mol Oncol Reviews Epithelial‐mesenchymal transition (EMT) is an important process in embryonic development, fibrosis, and cancer metastasis. During cancer progression, the activation of EMT permits cancer cells to acquire migratory, invasive, and stem‐like properties. A growing body of evidence supports the critical link between EMT and cancer stemness. However, contradictory results have indicated that the inhibition of EMT also promotes cancer stemness, and that mesenchymal‐epithelial transition, the reverse process of EMT, is associated with the tumor‐initiating ability required for metastatic colonization. The concept of ‘intermediate‐state EMT’ provides a possible explanation for this conflicting evidence. In addition, recent studies have indicated that the appearance of ‘hybrid’ epithelial‐mesenchymal cells is favorable for the establishment of metastasis. In summary, dynamic changes or plasticity between the epithelial and the mesenchymal states rather than a fixed phenotype is more likely to occur in tumors in the clinical setting. Further studies aimed at validating and consolidating the concept of intermediate‐state EMT and hybrid tumors are needed for the establishment of a comprehensive profile of cancer metastasis. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2017-06-26 2017-07 /pmc/articles/PMC5496497/ /pubmed/28649800 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/1878-0261.12096 Text en © 2017 The Authors. Published by FEBS Press and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Reviews
Liao, Tsai‐Tsen
Yang, Muh‐Hwa
Revisiting epithelial‐mesenchymal transition in cancer metastasis: the connection between epithelial plasticity and stemness
title Revisiting epithelial‐mesenchymal transition in cancer metastasis: the connection between epithelial plasticity and stemness
title_full Revisiting epithelial‐mesenchymal transition in cancer metastasis: the connection between epithelial plasticity and stemness
title_fullStr Revisiting epithelial‐mesenchymal transition in cancer metastasis: the connection between epithelial plasticity and stemness
title_full_unstemmed Revisiting epithelial‐mesenchymal transition in cancer metastasis: the connection between epithelial plasticity and stemness
title_short Revisiting epithelial‐mesenchymal transition in cancer metastasis: the connection between epithelial plasticity and stemness
title_sort revisiting epithelial‐mesenchymal transition in cancer metastasis: the connection between epithelial plasticity and stemness
topic Reviews
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5496497/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28649800
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/1878-0261.12096
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