Does homeobox-related “positional” genomic information contribute to implantation of metastatic cancer cells at non-random sites?
Anderson KM; Darweesh M; Jajah A; Tsui P; Guinan P; Rubenstein M Division of Cell Biology, Hektoen Medical Research Institute LLC, 627 S. Wood Street, Chicago 60612, USA. Kanderso427@aol.com Reasons for the lodgment of metastases from several types of solid cancer at apparently non-random sites have not been established. Recently, a group of genes expressed in human fibroblasts obtained from different anatomic locations was implicated in “positional” genomic information. Essentially, a Cartesian coordinate system identifying fibroblasts originally resident at anterior or more posterior, proximal or distal and dermal or non-dermal (heart, lung, etc.) locations was proposed. The determinants used for these identifications included HOX genes, central to embryonic segmental development, some of which are expressed in differentiated, post-embryonic cells. To the extent that HOX or other homeobox genes are expressed in ectodermal, mesodermal or endodermally-derived, malignantly transformed c