Breast cancer is a notable cause of
cancer-related death in women worldwide.
Metastasis to distant organs is responsible for ~90% of this death. Breast cells convert to malignant
cancer cells after acquiring the capacity of invasion/intravasation into surrounding tissues and, finally, extravasation/
metastasis to distant organs (i.e., lymph nodes, lungs, bone, brain).
Metastasis to distant organs depends on interactions between disseminated
tumor cells (DTCs) and the endothelium of blood vessels present in the tumor microenvironment. Among several known endothelial adhesion molecules,
vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) has been found to be involved in this process. It has been shown that
VCAM-1 is aberrantly expressed in
breast cancer cells and that it can bind to its natural
ligand α4β1integrin, also denoted as
very late antigen 4 (VLA-4). This binding appears to be responsible for the
metastasis of
breast cancer cells to lung, bone and brain. The α4β1
integrin -
VCAM-1 interaction thus represents a potential therapeutic target for metastatic
breast cancer cells. The development of inhibitors of this interaction may be instrumental for the clinical management of
breast cancer patients.
CONCLUSIONS: