Institut de Recerca Biomèdica (IRB Barcelona)
Life & Medical Sciences
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Research interests
Although metastasis is the leading cause of cancer death, we are still ill-prepared to fight it. Chemotherapy targets high-proliferating rather than the low-proliferating metastatic cells—allowing these to spread from the primary tumor to distant sites, where they resist conventional treatments, proliferate, and cause vital organ failure. We and others have helped to simplify our understanding of metastasis as an orderly sequence of basic steps, which allows us to rationalize the biological properties required for metastatic disease. We know that cancer cells must orchestrate diverse cellular functions to overcome the difficulties of transiting into the metastatic cascade; these functions are highly dependent on the interactions between the metastatic cell, the tumor, and host stroma. We now need a better understanding of steps of the kinetics and mechanisms that regulate tissue-specific metastasis progression, as a prerequisite for developing effective therapies in the future.
