On intrinsic susceptibility of healthy organs to primary cancer or metastasis

Abstract Although primary cancer can affect any part of the body, there is a striking variability in cancer prevalence across different organs. Moreover, metastases are non-randomly distributed among organs, with lung, liver, lymph nodes and bone acting as metastatic hotspots. The reasons for such inter-organ variability in the prevalence of primary cancers and metastases are insufficiently understood. In this in silico study we show that susceptibility of organs to a primary cancer or a metastasis is linked with their distinctive intrinsic features in the healthy state. In particular, while susceptibility of an organ to primary cancer is associated with the abundance of arterial endothelial cells and atypical gene expression, susceptibility to metastases correlates with high content of immune cells and high expression of immune genes. These data shed light on some fundamental aspects of cancer biology and pave new avenues for mitigation of cancer.