Identifying drivers of metastasis; towards a systematic approach

Metastasis is incontrovertibly linked to poor cancer patient survival. Cancer treatments that inhibit metastasis are predicted to improve cancer patient outcomes by preventing cancer dissemination. However, to control metastasis in patients necessitates an understanding of the biological drivers of metastasis. Drivers of metastasis can be thought of as factors that promote tumour dissemination, required at least for a part of the metastatic process. Yet, presently specific molecular drivers of metastasis largely remain unidentified, and very little evidence for ubiquitous metastasis-specific driver gene mutations has been identified to date (1,2).