Nature Communications (Aug 2021)

ICAM1 initiates CTC cluster formation and trans-endothelial migration in lung metastasis of breast cancer

  • Rokana Taftaf,
  • Xia Liu,
  • Salendra Singh,
  • Yuzhi Jia,
  • Nurmaa K. Dashzeveg,
  • Andrew D. Hoffmann,
  • Lamiaa El-Shennawy,
  • Erika K. Ramos,
  • Valery Adorno-Cruz,
  • Emma J. Schuster,
  • David Scholten,
  • Dhwani Patel,
  • Youbin Zhang,
  • Andrew A. Davis,
  • Carolina Reduzzi,
  • Yue Cao,
  • Paolo D’Amico,
  • Yang Shen,
  • Massimo Cristofanilli,
  • William A. Muller,
  • Vinay Varadan,
  • Huiping Liu

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-25189-z
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 12, no. 1
pp. 1 – 15

Abstract

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Circulating tumor cell (CTC) clusters are more efficient at mediating metastasis as compared to single cells and are associated with poor prognosis in breast cancer. Here, the authors show that ICAM1 is enriched in CTC clusters and its loss suppresses cell-cell interaction and CTC cluster formation, and propose ICAM1 as a therapeutic target for treating breast cancer metastasis.