The ability of an epithelial cell to adhere to its neighbor and to the extracellular environment is an essential process that defines in part a normal multicellular organism. In the post-genomic era of cancer biology, it is known that epithelial tumors are multi-clonal and are genetically unstable. In contrast, during the process of tumor metastasis, which is the major cause of death from cancer, a restricted set of adhesion molecules are displayed on the tumor cell surface. The adhesion molecules provide a selective advantage for migration of the tumor cell to a distant site. In this...

The ability of an epithelial cell to adhere to its neighbor and to the extracellular environment is an essential process that defines in part a normal multicellular organism. In the post-genomic era of cancer biology, it is known that epithelial tumors are multi-clonal and are genetically unstable. In contrast, during the process of tumor metastasis, which is the major cause of death from cancer, a restricted set of adhesion molecules are displayed on the tumor cell surface. The adhesion molecules provide a selective advantage for migration of the tumor cell to a distant site. In this...