Metastasis is the leading cause of death among cancer patients because few effective treatment options are available. A recent paper proposes a new twist on metastasis. The paper shows that circulating tumor cells can return to the primary tumor, a process termed tumor self- seeding or cross -seeding, and that this helps breeding tumor cells that give rise to aggressive metastatic variants. This review describes the current situation and development of this phenomenon and addresses the implications of these studies for human cancer metastasis.%由于缺乏有效的治疗手段,转移仍是癌症病人死亡的首要原因.肿瘤转移的新理论认为循环肿瘤细胞能够回到肿瘤原发灶,从而滋养肿瘤细胞,并产生更具侵袭力的转移株.本文就该现象加以综述,并对其在人类癌症转移研究中的意义进行探讨.
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