What is intravasation in metastasis?
Intravasation is a key step in cancer metastasis during which tumor cells penetrate the vessel wall and enter circulation, thereby becoming circulating tumor cells and potential metastatic seeds.
What is intravasation in cancer?
Listen to pronunciation. (in-TRA-vuh-SAY-shun) The movement of a cell or a foreign substance through the wall of a blood or lymph vessel into the vessel itself. In cancer, this is how cancer cells pass through a vessel wall and enter the blood or lymph systems.
How does intravasation occur?
Intravasation is often regarded as a relatively late process during cancer progression, initiated after aggressive cancer cells undergo epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), breach the epithelial basement membrane, invade the surrounding stroma and reach tumor-coalescing blood vessels, which the escaped cells then …
What is the difference between intravasation and extravasation?
Intravasation (entry of cancer cells into the blood vessels), and c. Extravasation (exit of cancer cells from the blood vessels to invade secondary organs). EMT is a process during which epithelial cells lose their cell-cell adhesion and polarity to transform into mesenchyme-like cells [5,6].
What happens during extravasation of metastasis?
Extravasation involves a cascade of events consisting of (1) tumor cell arrest on the endothelium resulting in the formation of dynamic contacts that give rise to significant cytoskeletal changes, and (2) tumor cell transendothelial migration (TEM) and subsequent invasion into the surrounding matrix1.
Is metastatic disease curable?
In some situations, metastatic cancer can be cured, but most commonly, treatment does not cure the cancer. But doctors can treat it to slow its growth and reduce symptoms. It is possible to live for many months or years with certain types of cancer, even after the development of metastatic disease.
Intravasation, the first step of metastasis, involves migration away from the primary tumor employing mechanisms similar to those used during normal cell migration [9]. Therefore, molecules that regulate cell migration may become dysregulated during metastasis and act as metastasis promoters [10].
How does intravasation kill cancer cells?
The process of intravasation is very inefficient, and the shear stress of blood flow alone may be enough to destroy many of the cells entering into the bloodstream. Once in the bloodstream, the cancer cells must also be able to evade the immune system and implant at a secondary site to form distant metastasis.
What are the clinical applications of intravasation?
Major stimulators of intravasation are noted in blue and key properties regulating intravasation are indicated in orange. Possible clinical applications of our understanding of intravasation broadly fall into two general categories: prognosis and therapy.
What is Passive intravasation?
Passive intravasation refers to a process in which tumors metastasize through passive shedding. Evidence for this is seen when the number of tumor cells released into the blood stream increases when the primary tumor experiences trauma.