Lymph node metastases can invade local blood vessels, exit the node, and colonize distant organs in mice

• DOI: 10.1126/science.aal3622
• Publication Date: 2018-03-22T18:10:52Z
• Authors: Ethel R. Pereira; Dmitriy Kedrin; Giorgio Seano; Olivia Gautier; Eelco F. J. Meijer; Dennis Jones; Shan-Min Chin; Shuji Kitahara; Echoe M. Bouta; Jonathan Chang; Elizabeth Beech; Han-Sin Jeong; Michael C. Carroll; Alphonse G. Taghian; Timothy P. Padera
• Keywords: 0301 basic medicine; Mice, Inbred BALB C; Melanoma, Experimental; Neoplastic Cells, Circulating; 3. Good health; Mice, Inbred C57BL; Luminescent Proteins; Mice; 03 medical and health sciences; Cytosol; Neoplasm Seeding; Cell Movement; Cell Tracking; Cell Line, Tumor; Lymphatic Metastasis; Carcinoma, Squamous Cell; Animals; Blood Vessels; Female; Lymph Nodes; Lung

An alternate route for metastatic cells

Metastatic tumor cells are thought to reach distant organs by traveling through the blood circulation or the lymphatic system. Two studies of mouse models now suggest a hybrid route for tumor cell dissemination. Pereira et al. and Brown et al. used distinct methodologies to monitor the fate of tumor cells in lymph nodes. They found that tumor cells could invade local blood vessels within a node, exit the node by entering the blood circulation, then go on to colonize the lung. Whether this dissemination route occurs in cancer patients is unknown; the answer could potentially change the way that affected lymph nodes are treated in cancer.

Science , this issue p. 1403 , p. 1408