Schafer Lab

Cancer Cell Survival During Metastasis

Metastasis, the spread of cancer from the site of the primary tumor to distant locations in the body, is responsible for 90% of cancer deaths, yet the molecular mechanisms governing this extraordinarily complicated process remain poorly understood. It has become clear that an important barrier to metastasis is the induction of anoikis, a cell death process that is induced when epithelial cells lose attachment to the extracellular matrix (ECM).  The overarching goal of my laboratory is to examine and characterize the biological mechanisms that permit cancer cell survival in the absence of ECM attachment.