Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2018. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Oncol. Jun 15, 2018; 10(6): 124-136
Published online Jun 15, 2018. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v10.i6.124
Emerging evidence of the molecular landscape specific for hematogenous metastasis from gastric cancer
Dai Shimizu, Mitsuro Kanda, Yasuhiro Kodera
Dai Shimizu, Mitsuro Kanda, Yasuhiro Kodera, Department of Gastroenterological Surgery (Surgery II), Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, Nagoya 466-8550, Japan
Author contributions: Shimizu D wrote the manuscript; Kanda M and Kodera Y revised the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no conflicts of interest or financial support to disclose.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Mitsuro Kanda, MD, PhD, Research Fellow, Department of Gastroenterological Surgery (Surgery II), Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, 65 Tsurumai-cho, Showa-ku, Nagoya 466-8550, Japan. m-kanda@med.nagoya-u.ac.jp
Telephone: +81-52-7442249 Fax: +81-52-7442255
Received: February 23, 2018
Peer-review started: February 23, 2018
First decision: March 23, 2018
Revised: March 23, 2018
Accepted: April 19, 2018
Article in press: April 19, 2018
Published online: June 15, 2018
Abstract

Gastric cancer (GC) is one of the most frequently diagnosed cancers in the world. Most GC patients are diagnosed when the cancer is in an advanced stage, and consequently, some develop metastatic lesions that generally cause cancer-related death. Metastasis establishment is affected by various conditions, such as tumor location, hemodynamics and organotropism. While digestive cancers may share a primary site, certain cases develop hematogenous metastasis with the absence of peritoneal metastasis, and vice versa. Numerous studies have revealed the clinicopathological risk factors for hematogenous metastasis from GC, such as vascular invasion, advanced age, differentiation, Borrmann type 1 or 2 and expansive growth. Recently, molecular mechanisms that contribute to metastatic site determination have been elucidated by advanced molecular biological techniques. Investigating the molecules that specifically participate in metastasis establishment in distinct secondary organs will lead to the development of novel biomarkers for patient stratification according to their metastatic risk and strategies for preventing and treating distinct metastases. We reviewed articles related to the molecular landscape of hematogenous metastasis from GC.

Keywords: Gastric cancer, Hematogenous metastasis, Hepatic metastasis, Molecular mechanism, Biomarker, Premetastatic niche

Core tip: Gastric cancer (GC) has high cancer-related mortality, which is mainly caused by distant metastasis including hematogenous metastasis. Numerous steps are required to establish a metastatic focus, and understanding the molecular mechanisms of each step is necessary to conquer metastasis. Development and dissemination of sequencing technology have elucidated some of the molecular biological mechanisms associated with cancer metastasis. This review aims to summarize the molecules reportedly contributing to hematogenous metastasis from GC and to become the groundwork for the further development of novel biomarkers and molecular targets.