Researchers have discovered a new driver of cancer cell metastasis

Malignant tumors spread throughout the body by releasing cancer cells into the blood.

Their research results were published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, with the title of the paper " Temporal multi-omics identifies LRG1 as a vascular niche instructor of metastasis

The researchers wrote: "Metastasis is the main cause of cancer-related death

The researchers studied mice whose primary tumors were surgically removed

Focusing on the lung, the researchers conducted an overall gene expression analysis of the metastatic niche

The LRG1 gene was recently discovered to be a driver of emphysema, suggesting that deleting the gene from endothelial cells can prevent disease progression

In the current study, the researchers found that LRG1 is not only produced by blood vessels at the metastatic site, but also produced by endothelial cells throughout the body and released into the circulation

"On the one hand, we can now detect LRG1 produced by endothelial cells as a biomarker that indicates metastatic tumors