Wednesday, 17 August 2016

Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition Models

Kidney cancer originating from the renal tubular epithelium system is one of the most common cancers of the urinary system. It accounts for approximately 3% of all malignant tumors. The incidence of newly diagnosed patients has increased by approximately 2.5-3% annually from 2001-2010. Metastatic renal cell carcinoma is detected in approximately 30% of patients at the time of diagnosis. The overall distribution of metastatic sites is the lung, bone, lymph nodes, liver, adrenal gland and brain.

Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition Models

Metastatic renal cell carcinoma has a poor prognosis with a median overall survival of 12 months and a 5-year survival rate of less than 10%, which seriously affects patients’ quality of life. Invasion and metastasis, the major characteristics of malignant tumors, lead to the poor prognosis and death of patients. At present, the intrinsic molecular mechanisms and the extrinsic microenvironment that enhance the metastatic potential of primary tumor cells are still hot topics in the field of cancer research.


During the EMT, cellular morphology and adhering capacity will change and the expression of epithelial molecular markers will down-regulate while that of mesenchymal molecular markers will increase. Hypoxia, one of the various factors that can induce EMT in cancer cells, exists in many regions of solid tumors  because angiogenesis in tumors is heterogeneous, and cancer cells grow rapidly.

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