Fusion of bone marrow-derived cells with cancer cells: metastasis as a secondary disease in cancer

Chin J Cancer. 2014 Mar;33(3):133-9. doi: 10.5732/cjc.013.10243.

Abstract

This perspective article highlights the leukocyte-cancer cell hybrid theory as a mechanism for cancer metastasis. Beginning from the first proposal of the theory more than a century ago and continuing today with the first proof for this theory in a human cancer, the hybrid theory offers a unifying explanation for metastasis. In this scenario, leukocyte fusion with a cancer cell is a secondary disease superimposed upon the early tumor, giving birth to a new, malignant cell with a leukocyte-cancer cell hybrid epigenome.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Bone Marrow Cells* / cytology
  • Bone Marrow Cells* / pathology
  • Cell Fusion
  • Humans
  • Hybrid Cells / pathology*
  • Neoplasm Metastasis*
  • Neoplasms / pathology*
  • Neoplastic Stem Cells / pathology*