Tumor Microenvironment and Mechanisms of Cancer Metastasis: An Overlooked Fact: Cell Fusion

ABS TRACT Cell fusion is a cellular mechanism in which cell membranes of two or more cells fuse to become a new hybrid cell. Cell fusion plays an important role in several physiological tasks such as fertilization, organogenesis, inflammatory response, and tissue repair. However, cell fusion aids in the development of a wide range of pathological conditions such as inflammation and cancer. Cell fusion of normal somatic cells is a tightly controlled process that is limited to only a few cell types in humans, resulting in terminally differentiated multinucleated cells incapable of proliferation. However, this tightly controlled process becomes dysregulated due to genetic alterations and leads to the develop- ment of cancer. In this review, the implications of cell fusion and its role in carcinogenesis are discussed in detail.