Epithelial-mesenchymal transition in gastroenterological cancer

Abstract

Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) was fi rst reported as an essential process in embryonic cells and later showed that cancer cells, regardless of the context, exhibited a similar phenomenon that was crucial for tumor progression. Epithelial cells lose their adhesive characteristic capacity which is necessary for their functions but gain a mesenchymal phenotype. This change from epithelial to the mesenchymal phenotype of cancer cells makes it diffi cult to understand the mechanism underlying cancer biology and tumor progression. A number of transcription factors involved in tumor cell EMT and microRNA-regulated EMT have been reported. This review discussed recent fi ndings and new players in EMT in gastrointestinal cancers. Since the molecular mechanisms of tumor progression are sometimes context-dependent, the recent fi ndings of EMT have been reviewed in a context-dependent manner.