SERPINs shelter the endowed migrants in a hostile land

Abstract

Since metastatic lesions of solid tumors are the major cause of mortality in cancer patients, understanding the molecular mechanisms of metastasis is of paramount importance. Although extensive knowledge has been accumulated regarding the early steps in metastasis - starting with the departure of cancer cells from their primary sites, to their transit through the hematogenous and/or lymphatic systems, and ending with their entrance into the parenchyma of distant organs - it is difficult if not impossible to translate such knowledge into medicine due to the challenge of identifying patients with only primary tumors but otherwise pristine organs. In other words, autopsy studies indicate that a large proportion of patients already harbor dormant, undetectable micrometastases at the time of cancer diagnosis (Hensel et al,). Accordingly, stopping tumor cell dissemination is too late for these patients. Therefore, understanding the survival and outgrowth of micrometastases may hold greater promise to combat metastatic disease. Metastatic cells have to deploy mechanisms that warrant their survival and growth in target organs. A recent study in Cell unravels serpin's functions that enable cancer cells to initiate brain metastases. © 2014 Genentech, Inc.