Ovarian cancer is a highly metastatic malignancy and one of the leading causes of cancer death among women. In contrast to the typical metastasis route, ovarian cancer cells (OCCs) are thought to preferentially accumulate in soft tissues such as the adipocyte-rich omentum. Recent work has suggested that the metastatic potential of cancer cells is affected by matrix stiffness; e.g. breast cancer cells appear to grow better on stiff substrates. In this work (p. 2621), Michelle Dawson and co-workers investigate the hypothesis that the preferential accumulation of OCCs in soft tissue is also affected by mechanical cues by analysing the behaviour of two different cell lines with different metastatic potential on soft and stiff matrices. They find that metastatic OCCs adhere more on soft microenvironments and, after their engraftment, are more proliferative, more resistant to chemotherapeutics and also have an enhanced migratory capacity. These effects are greatly reduced in OCCs...

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