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Review
. 2023 Jul 15:229:115672.
doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2023.115672. Epub 2023 Mar 10.

New insight in urological cancer therapy: From epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) to application of nano-biomaterials

Peng He  1 , Qiang Dai  1 , Xiaojun Wu  2
Affiliations
Review

New insight in urological cancer therapy: From epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) to application of nano-biomaterials

Peng He et al. Environ Res. .

Abstract

A high number of cancer-related deaths (up to 90) are due to metastasis and simple definition of metastasis is new colony formation of tumor cells in a secondary site. In tumor cells, epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) stimulates metastasis and invasion, and it is a common characteristic of malignant tumors. Prostate cancer, bladder cancer and renal cancer are three main types of urological tumors that their malignant and aggressive behaviors are due to abnormal proliferation and metastasis. EMT has been well-documented as a mechanism for promoting invasion of tumor cells and in the current review, a special attention is directed towards understanding role of EMT in malignancy, metastasis and therapy response of urological cancers. The invasion and metastatic characteristics of urological tumors enhance due to EMT induction and this is essential for ensuring survival and ability in developing new colonies in neighboring and distant tissues and organs. When EMT induction occurs, malignant behavior of tumor cells enhances and their tend in developing therapy resistance especially chemoresistance promotes that is one of the underlying reasons for therapy failure and patient death. The lncRNAs, microRNAs, eIF5A2, Notch-4 and hypoxia are among common modulators of EMT mechanism in urological tumors. Moreover, anti-tumor compounds such as metformin can be utilized in suppressing malignancy of urological tumors. Besides, genes and epigenetic factors modulating EMT mechanism can be therapeutically targeted for interfering malignancy of urological tumors. Nanomaterials are new emerging agents in urological cancer therapy that they can improve potential of current therapeutics by their targeted delivery to tumor site. The important hallmarks of urological cancers including growth, invasion and angiogenesis can be suppressed by cargo-loaded nanomaterials. Moreover, nanomaterials can improve chemotherapy potential in urological cancer elimination and by providing phototherapy, they mediate synergistic tumor suppression. The clinical application depends on development of biocompatible nanomaterials.

Keywords: Cancer metastasis; Drug delivery; Drug resistance; EMT; Nanomaterials; Urological cancers.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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