New Weapon For Attacking Tumor Invasion And Metastasis

In vitro, AMD3100 has shown a significantly inhibitory effect on invasion and migration in colorectal cancer cell line. This effect can be further enhanced at higher concentration. This study was performed by a team led by Professor Ji-Kun Li from the Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the main causes of cancer-related death in the world. The mortality of CRC is principally attributed to the development of liver and other metastases. It may be helpful for doctors to find a new biomarker that predicts early recurrence or distant organ metastasis. There is also a pressing need for more effective treatments for patients with advanced colorectal cancer.

In the view of the authors, their research has shown elevated CXCR4 (a new receptor on cancer cells) expression in primary CRC is associated with liver and lymph node metastasis, which prompts them to elucidate the mechanism of this phenomenon. They also found AMD3100 had significant antitumor activity through regulating pathways downstream of CXCR4 and impaired formation of tumor micro vessels and expression of invasive associated genes.

Inhibition of CRC cells survival and metastatic spread by interfering with the ligand- receptor axis has been successful in vitro. Though these data do not necessarily predict a satisfactory outcome of clinical trials, they provide a novel strategy based on this new molecule pair.