METCAM/MUC18 Promotes Tumor Progression and Metastasis in Most Human Cancers

In addition to oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes, cell adhesion molecules (CAMs) also significantly contribute to tumor progression and metastasis. For the past two decades, we have demonstrated that METCAM/MUC18, a cell adhesion molecule in the immunoglobulin-like gene superfamily, orchestrates complex interactions of tumor cells with various stromal cells in the tumor microenvironment, resulting in augmentation or reduction of the metastatic potential of carcinoma cells. Here we show that METCAM/MUC18 plays a positive role in the tumor progression and metastasis in most human cancers, such as breast cancer, human melanoma and most mouse melanoma, nasopharyngeal carcinoma type III, prostate cancer LNCaP and DU145 cell lines, and perhaps angiosarcoma, gastric cancer, glioma, hepatocellular carcinoma, non-small cell lung adenocarcinoma, small cell lung cancer (SCLC), osteosarcoma, and human and mouse pancreatic cancer. Possible mechanisms in the METCAM/MUC18-mediated tumor progression and metastasis are proposed. Anti-METCAM/MUC18 antibodies and siRNAs may be used as therapeutic agents to treat these cancers