IKKα at the Crossroads of Inflammation and Metastasis

The development of solid tumors is regulated by dynamic interactions between evolving neoplastic cells and their microenvironment. recently demonstrated that tumor-infiltrating immune cells expressing RANKL induce activation and nuclear localization of IKKα in prostatic epithelial tumor cells. This leads to repression of maspin, a critical suppressor of metastasis, and thus commits malignant prostatic epithelial cells to a metastatic fate.