Extracellular matrix in gene expression profiling of cancer

Extracellular matrix (ECM) plays many roles in tissues. Approach applied to clarify in which way ECM is involved in tumor biology, has to take into account complexity of intricate interactions within tissues and also spatial distributions of tissue components. This contribution examines studies identifying gene expression signatures that contain ECM-related genes. Direct interactions of tumor cells with newly expressed ECM components typical for tumors should be substantiated by expression of corresponding adhesion receptors. This has not been clearly documented by gene expression studies.