The treatment of metastatic cancer was and remains a failure. So far, the conventional wisdom is that invariably, heterogeneous cell populations develop containing subpopulations with different invasive, angiogenic and drug resistant properties. Surprisingly (although our ignorance should not come as a great surprise), we still do not know the basic factors: are certain primary tumors more or less prone to metastasis? Is the ability to metastasize a characteristic of only a few cells? At what point do such rogue cells acquire their potential? Lately, gene-expression profiles are being studied for the elusive answer: is there a metastatic gene signature?
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