[HTML][HTML] Manipulating the environment of cancer cells in bone: a novel therapeutic approach

TJ Martin - The Journal of clinical investigation, 2002 - Am Soc Clin Investig
TJ Martin
The Journal of clinical investigation, 2002Am Soc Clin Investig
The fact that human cancers have preferential sites of distant spread indicates that
metastasis is a highly specific and regulated process rather than a random event. Breast
cancer is one of several cancers, including prostate, thyroid, and kidney, that display a very
high frequency of metastasis to bone (1). The predilection for breast cancer to spread to
bone was recognized more than a hundred years ago by Paget (2), who proposed that bone
provides a favorable and specific “soil,” or microenvironment, for the growth of specific …
The fact that human cancers have preferential sites of distant spread indicates that metastasis is a highly specific and regulated process rather than a random event. Breast cancer is one of several cancers, including prostate, thyroid, and kidney, that display a very high frequency of metastasis to bone (1). The predilection for breast cancer to spread to bone was recognized more than a hundred years ago by Paget (2), who proposed that bone provides a favorable and specific “soil,” or microenvironment, for the growth of specific “seed,” or breast cancer cells.
As a densely mineralized tissue, bone represents a particularly harsh environment for successful tumor cell establishment and growth. Older ideas of pathogenesis favor the view that tumor cells themselves directly cause bone breakdown as a result of their general invasive properties. Such invasive capability is essential, of course, but there is little doubt that the most important specific property required of cancer cells to metastasize in bone is the ability to promote bone resorption, thereby providing a niche in which tumor cells can grow and expand in this otherwise hostile environment. The resorption by host
The Journal of Clinical Investigation