Neurocristopathies also encompass NC-derived cancers, including neuroblastoma and malignant melanoma. Neuroblastoma is the most common solid cancer in the first year of life and is a leading cause of death in children with cancer. Malignant melanoma is the most aggressive skin cancer and the second most common cancer in individuals under the age of 50. Our study indicates that in NC-derived neuroblastoma and melanoma, DSE expression is correlated with gene sets for various migratory properties of cancer cells, including EMT, invasion and metastasis. During tumor progression, carcinoma cells acquire mesenchymal gene expression patterns, which results in migratory and invasive properties that enable the cells to disseminate through the body to produce metastatic tumors in distinct organs (Thiery et al., 2009; Tsai and Yang, 2013). Because of the heterogeneity of tumors (which have both epithelial and mesenchymal cells), it has been difficult to investigate the EMT in cancer development in vivo (Tsuji et al., 2009). Our Xenopus NC model has established a functional link between DS-epi1 and cell migration. The correlation between DS-epi1 expression and EMT in NC-derived cancers suggests a possible involvement of DS in metastatic diseases that remains to be investigated.
