The biologist's perspective: May the biological basis of a CUP phenotype be defined? [Le point de vue du biologiste: Peut-on définir les bases biologiques du ?phénotype CAPI??]

摘要

From the biologist's viewpoint, the main characteristic of CUP tumours is the imbalance between the growth of metastases and the relative or absolute growth inhibition of the primary tumour. Recent studies have highlighted a limited clonal divergence between the various CUP tumour sites. This suggests that the cellular metastatic functions - such asmotility, isolated cell survival and invasiveness - are acquired before the tumour spread, either in a cryptic primary site or in a metastatic initial take-over site. Data from our working group suggest that some types of TP53 gene mutations are preferentially observed in CUP tumours. In addition, our studies of functional genomics show that some genes that control metastatic functions have distinct expression patterns in CUP and secondary metastases.