Progress in the Mechanism of Lymphangiogenesis and Lymphatic Metastasis 
of Non-small Cell Lung Cancer

Abstract

Lung cancer ranks the first cancer-related morbidity and mortality in China. Tumor metastasis always predicts the poor prognosis for patients. Moreover, lymphatic metastasis is one of the most significant predictors of poor prognosis in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and lymphangiogenesis represents the bridge that functionally facilitates tumor lymphatic metastasis. In this review, we first discussed the molecular mechanisms of tumor-associated lymphangiogenesis and the interaction between tumor microenvironment and lymphatic endothelial cells, then, summarized the role of non-coding RNA in regulating tumor-associated lymphangiogenesis in recent frontier studies, with the aim to provide some novel insights on NSCLC-related lymphangiogenesis research, diagnosis and treatment.

Keywords

• lung neoplasms
• lymphatic metastasis
• lymphangiogenesis
• tumor microenvironment
• non-coding rna