Epithelial Mesenchymal Transition in Carcinoma; Therapeutic Intervention

We previously proposed that epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), a developmental mechanism, becomes high-jacked by carcinoma cells for their invasion and metastasis and have es-tablished an EMT scoring system applicable to all carcinoma. In this presentation, I will briefly discus when and how an EMT phenotype can be acquired in the primary tumors or in CTCs. I will then describe our strategy to harness the EMT concept as a complementary strategy to currently available targeted thera-peutics. I shall present the potential to treat mesenchymal-like tumors in bladder carcinoma based on our analysis of the mech-anisms driving EMT in this tumor type. I will also show that we can potentially improve immunotherapy-based treatment by interfering with the EMT phenotype.