Cadherins in cancer: implications for invasion and metastasis.

In order to understand the mechanisms of metastasis, one must first determine how cancer cells detach from primary tumors. It is known that cadherins are major cell-cell adhesion molecules in tumors as well as in normal tissues. The perturbation of cadherin function causes temporal or permanent disaggregation of tumor cells and may thus promote the invasion and metastasis of such cells.