Abstract
In 1889, the English surgeon Stephen Paget (Fig. 2.1) published his “seed and soil” explanation of nonrandom pattern of metastasis, and was the first to suggest that interactions between tumor cells and host cells in the microenvironment are critical in regulating tumorigenesis (Paget 1889). Certain favored tumor cells (the ‘seed’), he said, had a specific affinity for the growth-enhancing milieu within specific organs (the ‘soil’), and hence metastasis only occurred when the ‘seed’ and ‘soil’ were compatible (Ribatti et al. 2006). Paget analyzed autopsy records of 735 women with breast cancer. His analysis documented a non-random pattern of metastasis to visceral organs and bones, suggesting that the process was not due to chance but rather that certain tumor cells had a specific affinity for the milieu of certain organs.
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Ribatti, D. (2017). The Importance of Microenvironment in Tumor Metastasis. In: Inflammation and Angiogenesis. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68448-2_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68448-2_2
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