Abstract: the article presents an analysis of domestic and foreign literary sources devoted to the study of the role of E-cadherin in the development of tumor processes. E-cadherin is an essential cell adhesion molecule responsible for uniting epithelial cells and maintaining the integrity of body tissues. E-cadherin is involved in the implementation of signaling pathways, is a key marker of epithelial-mesenchymal transition in the formation of tissues in normal conditions and in the processes of invasion and metastasis of tumors. At the heart of metastasis is a violation of the integrity of the epithelial tissue associated with a reduced or lost expression of E-cadherin gene. The loss of the epithelial phenotype by cells during the epithelial-mesenchymal transition serves as a prerequisite for the development of cancer stem cells. Disruption of E-cadherin expression gene promotes the development of a signaling cascade, which leads to an increase in the ability of tumor cells to invade and causes the development of distant metastases. This article summarizes the data on the study of the expression of E-cadherin gene in patients with malignant neoplasms of various localization − breast cancer, colorectal cancer, kidney cancer, prostate cancer, skin melanoma. A conclusion was made about the possibility of determining the level of E-cadherin expression gene as a predictor of the prognosis and risk of progression of malignant tumors, which is of great importance in real clinical practice.
Keywords: E-cadherin, cell adhesion molecules, epithelial-mesenchymal transition, metastasis, malignant neoplasms, disease prognosis