Loading
Before a single cancer cell arrives, the primary tumour sends parcels ahead: tiny vesicles (exosomes) and hormones that recruit bone-marrow cells to a distant organ and remodel it into fertile soil. By the time the seed lands, the bed is already made.
Tumour-secreted factors (VEGF-A, PlGF, TNF, TGF-β, G-CSF, LOX) and exosomes prime distant sites: exosomal integrins address organs (α6β4/α6β1 to lung fibroblasts and epithelium, αvβ5 to liver Kupffer cells), exosomal MIF induces hepatic stellate cells to secrete fibronectin and TGF-β, and PDAC exosomes prepare liver niches; tumour-derived LOX crosslinks collagen; S100A8/A9 and SAA3 recruit VEGFR1+ haematopoietic progenitors, neutrophils and monocytes, which lay fibronectin, secrete MMP9, and increase vascular permeability. Hypoxia in the primary tumour amplifies the programme. The niche provides adhesion (fibronectin, periostin, tenascin C), survival signals, immune suppression (MDSCs, Treg), and later awakening cues (NETs, inflammation). Lymph nodes are similarly pre-conditioned (lymphangiogenesis via VEGF-C). Clinically the niche explains organ tropism and the benefit of adjuvant therapy; exosome profiling (integrin patterns, protein cargo) is being tested as a predictor of the site of relapse; LOX inhibitors and CXCR2/CCR2 blockade are experimental.
A colonising power that sends engineers, seed and fertiliser to a distant shore before the settlers sail. The settlers (CTCs) that land where the soil has been prepared survive; the ones that land elsewhere starve.
One pathway page on OnCo cites this paper by its DOI; this record gives the citation a page of its own so a reader can follow it without leaving OnCo. Read the abstract above alongside the citing page listed under Related; the record was created automatically from the Europe PMC entry and its figures have not been checked by hand.
This review is the standard map of the tumour microenvironment and the reason microenvironment-directed drugs, from anti-angiogenics to macrophage and fibroblast targeting agents, are developed alongside tumour-cell-directed ones.
Shares Myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs), CSF1R, VHL / HIF oxygen sensing, HIF-2α and the tags mechanism, mechanics-atlas.
Shares CSF1R, VHL / HIF oxygen sensing, HIF-2α, Intravasation & circulating tumour cells and the tags mechanism, mechanics-atlas.
Shares Myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs), CXCR4, CSF1R, VEGF / VEGFR and the tags mechanism, mechanics-atlas.
Shares Myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs), CSF1R and the tags mechanism, mechanics-atlas.
Shares CXCR4, CSF1R, Single-cell & spatial profiling, VEGF / VEGFR and the tags mechanism, mechanics-atlas.
Shares Tumour dormancy, Intravasation & circulating tumour cells and the tags mechanism, mechanics-atlas.
Shares Signatera, Minimal / molecular residual disease (MRD), MRD / molecular residual disease testing and the tags mechanism, mechanics-atlas.
Shares Organ tropism: seed and soil, The metastatic cascade and the tags mechanism, mechanics-atlas.