NIH R01 · 2024
Mechanisms of tumor cell clustering in breast cancer metastasis
Metastasis is the primary cause of breast cancer-related morbidity and mortality. During metastasis, cells from primary tumors shed into the bloodstream as circulating tumor cells (CTCs). CTCs travel to distant organs to establish secondary tumors. CTCs that form clusters exhibit a drastic increase in metastatic potential compared to single CTCs. While previous studies have described E-cadherin as a key mediator of adhesion in CTC clusters and metastasis, many breast tumors, including tumors of the highly metastatic triple negative breast cancer (TNBC), express little to no E-cadherin. Thus, an alternative, E-cadherin-independent mechanism must exist to mediate clustering between CTCs,…
From the public funding record at NIH RePORTER. Describes the funded project, not the reviews below.