Transcriptional profiling identifies upregulated genes following induction of epithelial-mesenchymal transition in squamous carcinoma cells.

During the progression of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC), the induction of an epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) program may play a critical role in the dissemination of cells from the primary tumor to distant metastatic foci. The process of EMT involves the activation of several important genes and pathways to help maintain survival and growth and evolve into highly invasive and metastatic variants. In this study, expression microarray analysis identified a set of 145 upregulated genes in EMT-like HNSCC cells.