Metastasis morphology

Chew, E. C., Josephson, R. L. and Wallace, J. (1976). Morphological aspects of the arrest of circulating cancer cells. In Fundamental Aspects of Metastasis (Weiss, L., ed.). Elsevier-North Holland, Amsterdam, p. 121. 

It has been recently shown that YTX did not induce any effect in E-cadherin system in vivo [32]. These results confirm the loss of morphological changes the toxin induced in any internal organ after several days of oral treatment, which has been described earlier. Before these last results and from E-cadherin data, YTX was proposed to facilitate tumor spreading and metastasis formation [30] however, now affirmation of this hypothesis should be reviewed. In addition, an effect over E-cadherin levels was recently reported after azaspiracids exposition, suggesting that both toxins share their mechanism of action [33]. However, while human azaspiracids intoxications had been reported, YTX intoxications have never been described, and the data available about azaspiracid effect show a very different effect over cAMP, cytosolic calcium, intracellular pH, and cytoskeleton structure [34-39]. 

Fig. 3. Julius Arnold (1835-1915) in search of a connection between morphology and physiology performed large-scale dust inhalation experiments in rabbits and dogs and compared dust metastasis with post-mortem findings in man. (Courtesy of Prof. Dr. Herwart F.Otto, present holder of the professorship)...

Computed tomography (CT) certainly is the key imaging modality used for the evaluation of mesothelioma. This applies to both the clinical assessment of mesothelioma and the staging of mesothelioma for therapeutic or epidemiological purposes. The morphological descriptors and criteria for the tumor node metastasis staging of mesothelioma are summarized in Tables 9.1-9.3. 

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