Download Mechanisms of Metastasis

Title: The Complexities of Cancer: Mechanisms of Metastasis
Speaker: Dr. Monica Frazier
Associate Professor in Department of Biology, CSU
Abstract:
Cancer is commonly defined as uncontrolled cell growth. However, to define it in this manner
maybe oversimplified. Uncontrolled growth as defined here is based upon the understanding that
molecules responsible for the control of a cell’s growth are no longer capable of performing their
jobs. Hence, growth is “uncontrolled”. However, when one looks at the dynamics of the cancer
cell, you soon realize that activities related to the survival/growth of the cell are not only
preserved, but incessant. To take it one step further, survival activities are “seized” by the cancer
cell for its own benefit. Therefore, the notion that cancer growth is “uncontrolled” may in fact
appear to be somewhat of a paradox in this sense. However, in the traditional definition of
“uncontrolled” cell growth, how does a cancer cell become “uncontrolled”? What changes must
occur and how does it happen? To answer these questions one must look at the epithelial to
mesenchymal transition (EMT). The EMT consists of events that lead to the invasion of cancer
cells into surrounding tissues, metastasis. Hence this talk will look at the initiating events relating
to EMT and the tumor environment from a molecular, cellular and structural level. These points
will hopefully lead to a discussion of models for mechanisms involved in tumor metastasis