Metastatic breast cancer at a glance: Scenarios of BC brain- and BC bone-metastasis by illustrations

Abstract

The machinery of metastasis is supposed to be the final effort of cancer cells' programming, but requires to be clearly defined. However, it is the success of cancer cells' journey from the primary organ to another destination(s). The occurrence of metastasis is as the result of the unpredictable and diverse cascade programming through the generations of cells and could not be generalized. So, the metastatic pattern is, more realistic, to be considered as a personalized event. The main problem with metastasis is due to the inter- and intra-diversity of different clones. Besides, there are the harmonized cascade events and cross-talk between the uncontrolled malignant scenarios including the functional behaviors of cancer cells and their territories. However, breast cancer metastasis (BCM) is, globally, a pronounced concern and causes lethality in BC patients. In this chapter, it was aimed to provide the basic requirements for metastasis, and the chain of events in BC. These are reflective of sequential cellular and molecular alteration by focusing on different signaling pathways and diverse group of genes through the road map of metastatic events. Besides, the cellular and molecular aspects in BC as a primary tumor and in two metastatic hosts including brain and bone have been explored. The impact of key genes such as growth factors (EGF, VEGF), stem cells (CD44/24 and CD133), the involved signaling pathways and their interactions are presented by illustrations. The remarkable correlations between these targets with the prognostic, prediction, and survival in BC-brain and BC-bone metastasis are highlighted. The most significant consideration in management of BCM includes the classification of the cellular/molecular characteristics, by linking and filling the gaps in genomic and somatic levels and providing most influential therapy to the metastatic patients. Finally, the personalized strategy with a multi-disciplinary approaches is essential to unveil the involved targets though the developmental processes in metastatic cancers.