Nicola Aceto’s research group shows that hypoxia triggers the intravasation of clustered circulating tumor cells
Cinzia Donato and colleagues from D-BSSE, DBM, Biozentrum and the University Hospital Basel showed in an article published in Cell Reports that low oxygen levels are responsible for clusters of tumor cells to leave the tumor and enter blood vessels. Conversely, pro-angiogenic treatment suppressed the formation of circulating tumor cell clusters and metastasis, while primary tumor size increased. These findings provide further insight into the process of metastasis and may impact treatment of cancer in the future.