Unravelling new pieces of tUmoUr metastasis pUzzle: the role of proteomics

Despite the abundance of attention that cancer has attracted, it continues to constitute one of the deadliest scourges of the modern era. Tumour heterogeneity greatly contributes to the ineffectiveness of current therapies and hampers the study and treatment of cancer. There are two models accounting for tumour heterogeneity and propagation, namely clonal evolution model and cancer stem cell model. In particular, cancer stem theory has attracted much attention lately, as these cells with self-renewal and differentiation abilities are responsible for the initiation of tumour development, growth, and its ability to metastasize and reoccur, and provide a reasonable explanation for poor prognosis for patients in advanced stages of solid tumours. Advances in technologies such as proteomics open new avenues in metastasis research by specifically revealing complex protein networks involved in tumour progression, which should facilitate early diagnosis and provide the basis for designing more effective treatment strategies.