Anoikis in thyroid cancer

Anoikis is a form of apoptosis induced by cell detachment from the extracellular matrix which results in a lack of normal physiological signals. Metastatic cells are resistant to anoikis and in thyroid cancer cells the mechanism of this resistance is unknown. In this study, Jensen and colleagues present several novel findings. They found that matrix-independence was associated with inter-cellular contact between floating thyroid cancer cells, formation of multi-cellular spheroids, and activation of gap junctional transfer, with expression of Connexin43 increasing in papillary and anaplastic cancer cells forming spheroids. This plays a role in AKT activation; the silencing of Connexin43 resulted in the loss of pAKT and induction of apoptosis. Thyroid cells are thus resistant to anoikis by establishing inter-cellular communication, highlighting the disruption of gap junctional transfer as a potential therapeutic strategy. Jensen et al. (2011) Endocrine-Related Cancer 18 613-626.

Read the full article at: DOI:10.1530/ERC-10-0289.