Metastases from solid tumors to distal sites are the main cause of malignancy-related death in cancer patients. Unfortunately, the mechanism of metastasis, as well as the preference of one site over another, is not well understood. Through the use of mouse models of asthma we have identified localized tissue inflammation that leads to the activation of the vascular endothelium as an important contributor to lung metastasis of cancer. More importantly, a retrospective review of a breast cancer surgical patient database confirms that a similar relationship appears to exist in humans. That is, the prevalence of asthma among breast cancer patients with recurrence of their disease as metastases in the lung is two-fold higher than nonasthmatic women with breast cancer. These data suggest that existing treatments targeting the lung inflammation associated with asthma may have immediate value as therapeutic strategies suppressing/preventing metastasis in the 7 to 8% of breast cancer patients with this respiratory disease. For details, see the article by Taranova and colleagues on page 8582 of this issue.

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