WIKIMEDIA, PATHODozens of genetic mutations are known to facilitate cancer progression, but metastasis doesn’t appear to be controlled by additional changes to the genome. A study of hundreds of colorectal cancer patients published in Science Translational Medicine this week (February 24) found patterns of these “driver” mutations are similar between primary tumors and metastatic ones.
Instead, the researchers discovered a link between metastasis and several immune-related changes, including alterations in gene expression, decreased abundance of cytotoxic lymphocytes, and a decline in lymphatic vessels.
“Areas that have been a focus of great interest in the field for many years are really not the primary reasons for metastasis in clinical course,” Edgar Engleman, who researches immunoncology at Stanford University but was not part of this study, told The Scientist. “And in fact, the finger is pointing again and again and again to the immune response.”
Jérôme Galon, head of the integrative cancer immunology laboratory at INSERM in Paris, said there has been very little known about what pushes a cancer to metastasize. To find some clues, he and his colleagues gathered genetic ...
