I have been taught that lung cancer mostly metastazise to the brain, liver or adrenal glands. I have heard about expression of adhesion molecules or blodflow as possible explanations of this. What is your explanation of this phenomenon?
Added by: David
On: May 2nd 2013
David,
It is a well-known phenomenon that individual cancer types tend to metastastise to the same organ, e.g. lung carcinomas to the brain, the liver and the adrenal glands. There are several theories of this prediliction, mentioning specific combinations of cell adhesion molecules or other “homing receptors” present on the tumour cells or in the organ in question and other factors of the local environment. Of course, there is also the question of preferred dissemination pathway, e.g. lymphatic channels in carcinomas and blood vessels in sarcomas, but this does not explain why some carcinomas tend to spread to the liver, while others primarily metastasise to the lung.