Critical Reviews in Oral Biology & Medicine, Vol 12, 499-510, Copyright © 2001 by International & American Associations for Dental Research

ARTICLES

Adhesive mechanisms regulating invasion and metastasis in oral cancer

B. L. Ziober, S. S. Silverman Jr and R. H. Kramer
Department of Otorhinolaryngology: Head and Neck Surgery, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia 19104, USA.

It is the relentless invasion and growth into surrounding tissue that characterize oral squamous cell carcinoma. Metastasis is perhaps the most challenging and important aspect of cancer progression, in that it generally signifies limited survival and ineffective therapy. Inherent in metastasis is invasion, the process by which cells infiltrate into adjacent tissues, degrading basement membranes and extracellular matrix and disrupting tissue architecture and sometimes organ function. The factors that regulate these processes are complex and likely involve loss of the controls that are normally in place in physiologic tissue modeling. Adhesion receptors and their ligands are important in modulating not only invasion of oral squamous cell carcinoma cells but also their survival and proliferation. Normal oral mucosal epithelial cells use integrins to maintain their anchorage to the basement membrane, whereas the formation of stratifying cell layers depends on the formation of intercellular adhesions mediated by cadherins. The process of squamous cell carcinoma invasion and dissemination requires active cell migration through the extracellular matrix with the simultaneous remodeling of intercellular adhesions. Integrins are clearly important in the invasive process, whereas intercellular adhesion receptors restrain invasion and promote a more differentiated phenotype.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				D. E. Costea, K. Kulasekara, E. Neppelberg, A. C. Johannessen, and O. K. Vintermyr Species-Specific Fibroblasts Required for Triggering Invasiveness of Partially Transformed Oral Keratinocytes Am. J. Pathol., June 1, 2006; 168(6): 1889 - 1897. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				X. Shen and R. H. Kramer Adhesion-Mediated Squamous Cell Carcinoma Survival through Ligand-Independent Activation of Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor Am. J. Pathol., October 1, 2004; 165(4): 1315 - 1329. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]