Advances in the mechanism of action of L1CAM in pancreatic cancer invasion and me-tastasis / 中国肿瘤临床

ABSTRACT

Pancreatic cancer has the highest mortality among malignant cancers. Known asthe king of cancer,it lacks early symp-toms, diagnostic methods and oncologic markers. Early lymph node metastasis could be found in this disease. Moreover, advanced panereatic cancer is incurable by surgery. Due to the limited efficacy of surgery, as well as radiotherapy and chemotherapy tolerance, therapeutic methods for pancreatic cancer are being explored. L1 cell adhesion molecule (L1CAM) is a member of the cell adhesion molecule inmunoglobulin (Ig) super family that is usually expressed in normal developing nervous tissues. L1CAM is highly expressed in pancreatic cancer cells, binds withα5-integrin to activate downstream factors that mediate tumor metastasis and invasion via the TGF-β1/JUK/slug signaling pathway, induces epithelium-mesenchymal transition, and resists chemotherapy drugs. However, L1CAM forms abnormal vessels that increase the invasiveness of pancreatic cancer cells. This abnormal L1CAM expression in pancreatic can-cer cells is a new therapeutic target in pancreatic cancer treatment. Therefore, future studies on L1CAM could promote the develop-ment of pancreatic cancer therapy and provide new treatment methods.