Dihydromyricetin inhibits cancer cell migration and matrix metalloproteinases‐2 expression in human nasopharyngeal carcinoma through extracellular signal‐regulated kinase signaling pathway

The hallmarks of cancer comprise six biological capabilities acquired during the multistep development of human tumors. The hallmarks constitute an organizing principle for rationalizing the complexities of neoplastic disease. They include sustaining proliferative signaling, evading growth suppressors, resisting cell death, enabling replicative immortality, inducing angiogenesis, and activating invasion and metastasis. Underlying these hallmarks are genome instability, which generates the genetic diversity that expedites their acquisition, and inflammation, which fosters multiple hallmark functions. Conceptual progress in the last decade has added two emerging hallmarks of potential generality to this list-reprogramming of energy metabolism and evading immune destruction. In addition to cancer cells, tumors exhibit another dimension of complexity: they contain a repertoire of recruited, ostensibly normal cells that contribute to the acquisition of hallmark traits by creating the "tumor microenvironment." Recognition of the widespread applicability of these concepts will increasingly affect the development of new means to treat human cancer. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Metastasis resistant to therapy is the major cause of death from cancer. Despite almost 200 years of study, the process of tumor metastasis remains controversial. Stephen Paget initially identified the role of host-tumor interactions on the basis of a review of autopsy records. His "seed and soil" hypothesis was substantiated a century later with experimental studies, and numerous reports have confirmed these seminal observations. An improved understanding of the metastatic process and the attributes of the cells selected by this process is critical for the treatment of patients with systemic disease. In many patients, metastasis has occurred by the time of diagnosis, so metastasis prevention may not be relevant. Treating systemic disease and identifying patients with early disease should be our goal. Revitalized research in the past three decades has focused on new discoveries in the biology of metastasis. Even though our understanding of molecular events that regulate metastasis has improved, the contributions and timing of molecular lesion(s) involved in metastasis pathogenesis remain unclear. Review of the history of pioneering observations and discussion of current controversies should increase understanding of the complex and multifactorial interactions between the host and selected tumor cells that contribute to fatal metastasis and should lead to the design of successful therapy. (c)2010 AACR.