INVASION PROMOTER VERSUS INVASION SUPPRESSOR MOLECULES - THE PARADIGM OF E-CADHERIN

Metastasis determines cancer malignancy. Neoplastic cells metastasize through a multistep process of invasion. At each step, these cells create a dynamic micro-ecosystem in which the elements of the host are considered to paricipate actively invasion. Within such micro-ecosystems, invasion is believed to be governed by a balance between the activation of promoter (i-minus) and suppressor (i-plus) genes. Products of such genes regulate the expression of the invasive (I-plus) and the nonivasive (I-minus) phenotypes. Experiments in vitro and in vivo, as well as observations on human cancers have put forward the cell-cell adhesion molecule E-cadherin (L-CAM; uvomorulin) as a regulator of epithelial organization and an invasion suppressor. © 1994 Kluwer Academic Publishers.