Abstract
Cancer metastasis is the major cause of cancer-related deaths and accounts for poor therapeutic outcomes. A metastatic cascade is a series of complicated biological processes. N(6)-methyladenosine (m(6)A) is the most abundant and conserved epitranscriptomic modification in eukaryotic cells, which has great impacts on RNA production and metabolism, including RNA splicing, processing, degradation and translation. Accumulating evidence demonstrates that m(6)A plays a critical role in regulating cancer metastasis. However, there is a lack of studies that review the recent advances of m(6)A in cancer metastasis. Here, we systematically retrieved the functions and mechanisms of how the m(6)A axis regulates metastasis, and especially summarized the organ-specific liver, lung and brain metastasis mediated by m(6)A in various cancers. Moreover, we discussed the potential application of m(6)A modification in cancer diagnosis and therapy, as well as the present limitations and future perspectives of m(6)A in cancer metastasis. This review provides a comprehensive knowledge on the m(6)A-mediated regulation of gene expression, which is helpful to extensively understand the complexity of cancer metastasis from a new epitranscriptomic point of view and shed light on the developing novel strategies to anti-metastasis based on m(6)A alteration.