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Hello, I'm Professor Isaac Witz,
head of the tumor microenvironment and metastasis research lab at
the Shmunis School of Biomedicine & Cancer Research at Tel Aviv University.
I am going to talk to you about the role of
the microenvironment in the progression of tumor cells towards metastasis.
The tumor microenvironment has become a very extensive research area.
Any single topic touched upon in this presentation would require a separate lecture.
Today's lecture will therefore only be an overview of this multi-disciplinary field.
0:38
To start, let me take you back to the 70s and 80s of the last century.
The cancer research field at that time,
was dominated by the concept that oncogenes and
tumor-suppressor genes are the only and exclusive causes of cancer.
Let me read you one sentence from a paper published in '83 by Michael Bishop,
who together with Harold Varmus was awarded the Nobel Prize for the discovery of oncogenes:
"A common set of cellular genes may help to mediate
the genesis of all tumors, whatever their cause".
Please judge for yourself to what extent you agree with this statement.
1:25
The cancer-centric view did not provide
a satisfactory mechanism for the progression towards metastasis.
Two leading cancer geneticists,
the late Ruth Sager and Bert Vogelstein, raised this important issue.
