Jiang L, Tolani B, Yeh CC, et al. - Whether metastasis capability of a finite subpopulation of tumor cells is attributable to phenotypic changes driven by differential gene expression in these cells was investigated. Researchers also investigated principal pathways via analysis of gene expression in primary and metastatic lesions from the same patients. In 4 matched samples of primary and metastatic sarcoma, whole-genome expression was compared. Thereafter, they assessed candidate genes with differential expression using quantitative PCR in 30 extra matched sets, tumor tissue immunostaining, siRNA loss-of-function in a sarcoma cell migration assay. The clinical relationship with overall and disease-free survival post-metastasectomy was also evaluated. In vitro, suppression of sarcoma cell migration was induced by silencing of KRT7 and MUC1 via targeted siRNAs. There was a significant link (two-sided) between both KRT7 and MUC1 expression in metastases and overall patient survival. Overall, findings are suggestive of a possible significant role of KRT7 and MUC1 in allowing sarcoma metastasis, and in turn, may be crucial prognostic biomarkers and potential targets for therapeutic prevention of metastasis.