Tuyển tập các báo cáo nghiên cứu về y học được đăng trên tạp chí y học Wertheim cung cấp cho các bạn kiến thức về ngành y đề tài: Predicting the sites of metastases. | Minireview Predicting the sites of metastases Brian Z Ring and Douglas T Ross Address Applied Genomics Inc. 525 Del Rey Avenue Sunnyvale CA 94085 USA. Correspondence Brian Z Ring. E-mail bzring@. Douglas T Ross. E-mail dtross@ Published 2 December 2005 Genome Biology 2005 6 241 doi gb-2005-6-l2-24l The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at http 2005 6 l2 24l 2005 BioMed Central Ltd Abstract Transplantation of human breast cancer cells into immunodeficient mice together with geneexpression microarray studies has recently identified genes implicated in the tissue tropism of breast-cancer metastasis. Such signatures of site-specific metastatic capabilities might allow the targeting of therapy to likely sites of metastasis. Metastases are the primary cause of death of cancer patients and improving the means of foretelling their development is a major goal of current clinical research. Already new genomic-based tests predicting the likelihood of tumor recurrence are making the first tentative steps into the clinic 1 . Recent work 2-4 most notably studies of breast cancer by Minn and colleagues 3 4 suggests that it is possible to refine these tests so that the site of distant recurrence can also be predicted. Such an enhancement of cancer diagnostics to address the tissue specificity of metastasis would aid the oncologist and patient by allowing additional treatment after surgery to be targeted to the tissue. The metastatic potential of tumors The establishment of metastases at sites distant from the origin of the tumor is non-random and thus potentially predictable. Breast tumors for example primarily spread to lung and bone marrow while colorectal cancer commonly metastasizes to liver. Some limits to this tumor tropism are clearly anatomical relating to the distribution and dimensions of the vascular or lymphatic system that disseminates circulating tumor .
