Recent studies have highlighted that epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is not only about cell migration and invasion, but it can also govern many other important elements such as immunosuppression, metabolic reprogramming, senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP), stem cell properties, therapy resistance, and tumor microenvironment interactions. With the on-going debate about the requirement of EMT for cancer metastasis, an emerging focus on intermediate states of EMT and its reverse process mesenchymal-epithelial transition (MET) offer new ideas for metastatic requirements and the dynamics of EMT/MET during the entire metastatic cascade. Therefore, we would like to initiate discussions on viewing EMT and its downstream signaling networks as a fulcrum of cellular plasticity, and a facilitator of the adaptive responses of cancer cells to distant organ microenvironments and various therapeutic assaults. We hereby invite scientists who have prominently contributed to this field, and whose valuable insights have led to the appreciation of epithelial-mesenchymal plasticity as a more comprehensive mediator of the adaptive response of cancer cells, with huge implications in metastasis, drug resistance, tumor relapse, and patient survival.

The key aim of the proposed chapter is to provide readers a brief description for the most important parts of the field of circulating tumor cells (CTCs): the core techniques, including negative and positive selection-based CTC isolation, and the differences between them. Most importantly, we will also review the clinical applications and important findings in clinical trials. The evidence-based review will not only help clinicians use CTCs to predict recurrence and foresee the disease-related outcomes but also to inspire the researchers in this field to conduct further investigations.

This book is a printed edition of the Special Issue "The Epithelial-to-Mesenchymal Transition (EMT) in Cancer" that was published in Cancers

The clinical significance of tumor spread has always been appreciated. Yet, in spite of the pioneering work and outstanding contributions of investigators such as D. Coman, H. Green, B. Fisher, S. Wood and I. Zeidman, studies on metastasis rarely achieved the popularity afforded to more esoteric areas of tumor biology. Tumor dissemination, occurring as it does in a responding host and being composed of a series of dynamic int~ractions, is a highly complex phenomenon. Few investigators were brave enough to attempt to unravel the mechanisms involved. Paradoxically, this very complexity may have contributed, in part, to the recent upsurge of interest in metastasis research. More and more researchers are becoming fascinated by the complexities of the cellular interactions involved in tumor spread. Accompanying this intellectual stimulation have been technological advances in related fields which allow the derivation of new model systems. The mechanisms of metastatic spread are increasingly amenable to both the reductionist and holistic approaches and it is the purpose of this volume to present many of these model systems while emphasizing the intricacy and complexity of the processes they mimic. We have attempted to emphasize two topics not previously covered in depth in previous books on metastases. These are in vitro models of invasion and in teractions of tumor cells with connective tissue.

The four sections of this book cover cell and molecular biology of tumor metabolism, metabolites, tumor microenvironment, diagnostics and epigenetics. Written by international experts, it provides a thorough insight into and understanding of tumor cell metabolism and its role in tumor biology. The book is intended for scientists in cancer cell and molecular biology, scientists in drug and diagnostic development, as well as for clinicians and oncologists.

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