Cancer metastasis is considered as a complex process involving a series of sequential steps and a variety of molecalar signal transduction pathways.Tumor recurrence and metastasis are major obstacles for long-term survival of Liver cancer patients.Although the prognosis after recurrence and metastasis is dismal,the advancement of molecular researches of metastasis of liver cancer seems promising.In studies of origins of metastasis of liver cancer,the primary cancer cell and corresponding metastatic liver cancer cells share similar gene signature,which indicates that genes favoring metastasis progression are initiated in the primary tumors.The metastasis of liver cancer may be an early event in hepatic carcinogenesis and progression.Some molecular signatures have been developed to classify the metastatic potential of liver cancer.Furthermore,a variety of studies demonstrate that the tumor microenvironment instead of tumor cells plays a more important role in liver cancer metastasis.The pre-metastatic niche c

作者：樊嘉；史颖弘

来源：中华消化外科杂志 2010 年 9卷 1期