What is the spread of malignant cells through the blood to distant sites called?

metastasis, migration and spread of cancerous cells from a tumour to distant sites in the body, resulting in the development of secondary tumours. Tumours that grow and spread aggressively in this manner are designated malignant, or cancerous. Left unchecked, they can spread throughout the body and disrupt organ function.

Migration of cancer cells

In order to disseminate and spread to other sites in the body, the cells of a solid tumour must be able to detach from neighbouring cells, break through supporting membranes, burrow through other tissues until they reach a lymphatic or blood vessel, and then migrate through the lining of that vessel. Upon entering a vessel, the individual cells or clumps of cells are transported throughout the body, eventually lodging in a capillary of another organ, where they may begin to multiply and form a secondary tumour.

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In order to gain access to a blood or lymphatic channel, cancer cells must move through the extracellular matrix, a network of substances secreted by cells that helps to provide structure in tissues. Under normal circumstances, if a cell is unable to attach to the extracellular matrix, it dies through induction of programmed cell death (apoptosis). To metastasize, the tumour cells also must be able to penetrate the basement membrane of the vessel. To do this, they forge a path through tissues using enzymes that digest the extracellular matrix. The cell either synthesizes these enzymes or stimulates cells in the matrix to do so. The breakdown of the extracellular matrix not only creates a path of least resistance through which cancer cells can migrate but also gives rise to many biologically active molecules—some that promote angiogenesis (the formation of new blood vessels) and others that attract additional cells to the site.

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Once in the bloodstream, tumour cells are disseminated to regions throughout the body. Eventually these cells lodge in capillaries of other organs and exit into those organs, where they grow and establish new tumours. Not all the cancer cells within a malignant tumour are able to spread. Although all the cells in a tumour derive from a single cell, successive divisions give rise to a heterogeneous group of cancer cells, only some of which develop the genetic alterations that allow the cell to seed other tissues. Of those cells that are able to break away from the parent tumour and enter the circulation, probably less than 1 in 10,000 actually ends up creating a new tumour at a distant site.

Preferential spread

Although the location and nature of the primary tumour determine the patterns of dissemination, many tumours spread preferentially to certain sites. This situation can be explained in part by the architecture of the circulatory system and the natural routes of blood flow. Circulating cancer cells often establish new tumours “downstream” from their originating organ. For example, because the lungs are usually the first organ through which the blood flows after leaving most organs, they are the most common site of metastasis.

But circulation alone does not explain all cases of preferential spread. Clinical evidence suggests that a homing mechanism is responsible for some unlikely metastatic deposits. For example, prostate cancers and breast cancers often disseminate first to the bone, and lung cancer often seeds new tumours in the adrenal glands. This homing phenomenon may be related to tumour cell recognition of specific “exit sites” from the circulation or to awareness of a particularly favourable—or forbidding—“soil” of another tissue. This may occur because of an affinity that exists between receptor proteins on the surface of cancer cells and molecules that are abundant in specific tissues.

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One example of the homing phenomenon at the molecular level involves a substance known as CXCL12 (chemokine stromal cell-derived factor-1), which is secreted by stromal cells (connective tissue cells found within organs). This substance attracts cells that express a receptor known as CXCR4 (chemokine [C-X-C motif] receptor 4), which is found on certain types of cancer cells, such as those affected by breast cancer or acute myelogenous leukemia. The affinity of CXCR4-expressing cancer cells for CXCL12-secreting tissues results in the movement of the cancer cells from their primary sites of formation. Once the cancer cells bind to CXCL12 in the new tissue site, the chemokine stimulates tissue activities that promote the survival of the cancer cells. One of these activities involves angiogenesis, which is accomplished in part through CXCL12’s ability to attract endothelial cells to the tissue. The growth of blood vessels facilitates the delivery of nutrients to the cancer cells and hence encourages tumour growth.

Genetic defects and metastasis

Because metastasis is such a biologically complex phenomenon, it is unlikely that a single genetic defect brings it about. It seems more reasonable to predict that a number of aberrant genes contribute to metastasis. The complexity of aberrant gene interactions associated with metastasis has been demonstrated by multiple studies. For example, in a study of breast cancer patients whose disease had spread to the brain, defects in some 17 genes were correlated with brain metastasis. Six of these genes were also involved in the spread of breast cancer to the lung. The findings supported earlier studies that had identified an association between brain and lung metastases in breast cancer.

Attempts to discover what genes are involved are ongoing and, it is hoped, will lead to new therapeutic approaches that halt tumour spread.

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