Snail in the frame of malignant tumor recurrence.

Snail plays an important role in the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition during development and in tumor progression. Induction of Snail expression coincides with drastic morphological changes in cultured epithelial cells. Recently, a new role for Snail in tumor recurrence has been inferred from a reversible HER-2/neu-induced breast cancer mouse model. Comparative transcriptome analysis of human primary breast cancers suggests that elevated Snail expression is correlated with decreased relapse-free survival. Further characterization of Snail as master regulator in this process might enhance our understanding of the molecular and cellular changes during and after breast tumor recurrence.