Cited by 176Proteoglycans and glycosaminoglycans researchProtease and Inhibitor MechanismsTGF-β signaling in diseases

Cancer Metastasis: The Role of the Extracellular Matrix and the Heparan Sulfate Proteoglycan Perlecan

Open access
Elgundi, Zehra, Papanicolaou, Michael, Major, Gretel, Cox, Thomas R., Melrose, James, Whitelock, John M., Farrugia, Brooke L.·2020·Frontiers in Oncology

Abstract

Cancer metastasis is the dissemination of tumor cells to new sites, resulting in the formation of secondary tumors. This process is complex and is spatially and temporally regulated by intrinsic and extrinsic factors. One important extrinsic factor is the extracellular matrix, the non-cellular component of tissues. Heparan sulfate proteoglycans (HSPGs) are constituents of the extracellular matrix, and through their heparan sulfate chains and protein core, modulate multiple events that occur during the metastatic cascade. This review will provide an overview of the role of the extracellular matrix in the events that occur during cancer metastasis, primarily focusing on perlecan. Perlecan, a basement membrane HSPG is a key component of the vascular extracellular matrix and is commonly associated with events that occur during the metastatic cascade. Its contradictory role in these events will be discussed and we will highlight the recent advances in cancer therapies that target HSPGs and their modifying enzymes.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.3389/fonc.2019.01482

Cites

269 of 269 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • The ECM imparts key biophysical properties to tumor tissue, including stiffness, porosity, insolubility, and molecular density, which serve as biomechanical cues modulating migration, proliferation, polarity maintenance, and lineage specification.

    “This biochemical framework imparts key biophysical properties to the tumor tissue, including stiffness, porosity, insolubility, and molecular density [5,77,78,79]. These characteristics serve as biomechanical cues that modulate diverse cellular processes, such as migration, proliferation, polarity maintenance, and lineage specification [25,80].”

    From Modeling Tumor Microenvironment Complexity In Vitro: Spheroids as Physiologically Relevant Tumor Models and Strategies for Their Analysis (2025) · cites this paper as [25]

    Split into 2 atoms — 0 confirmed, 2 partially supported, 0 disputed, 0 misattributed, 0 unverifiable. Expand the claim to see per-atom verdicts.

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

1 retracted

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Elgundi, Z., Papanicolaou, M., Major, G., Cox, T. R., Melrose, J., Whitelock, J. M., & Farrugia, B. L.
Affiliations
  • UNSW Sydney (AU)
  • University of Technology Sydney (AU)
  • Garvan Institute of Medical Research (AU)
  • The University of Sydney (AU)
  • The University of Melbourne (AU)
Corresponding author
  • Elgundi, Zehra
  • Farrugia, Brooke L.
Venue
Frontiers in Oncology
Published
2020-01-17
Volume
9
Pages
1482-1482
ISSN
2234-943X (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2999080566
Cited by
176
References
269
Citations by year
2026: 8 · 2025: 28 · 2024: 39 · 2023: 36 · 2022: 34 · 2021: 22 · 2020: 9
FWCI
2.96
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Frontiers in Oncology (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • UNSWorks (University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • Minerva Access (University of Melbourne) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
  • UTS ePRESS (University of Technology Sydney) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
Funders
  • Cancer Institute NSW
  • National Health and Medical Research Council
  • Cancer Council NSW
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Cell Biology › Proteoglycans and glycosaminoglycans research
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Cancer Research › Protease and Inhibitor Mechanisms
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › TGF-β signaling in diseases
Keywords
metastasis, extracellular matrix, perlecan, heparan sulfate proteoglycans, basement membrane, metastatic cascade, vascular extracellular matrix

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review