Metastasis: objections to the same-gene model

Abstract

Sir— The model of cancer metastasis suggested by René Bernards and Robert A. Weinberg in their Concepts essay (Nature 418, 823; 2002) is, in my view, a tautology. The suggestion that the same genes are exclusively responsible both for cancer-cell metastasis and for the emergence and proliferation of cancer cells is tantamount to saying “cancer cells that can proliferate do proliferate”. It would be a great loss if this type of idea caused a decline in research to investigate the existence of new genes involved in metastasis, a major factor in cancer mortality.