LOX and neoplasm: Moreover, the alteration of the ECM by LOX-induced catalyzing of collagen and elastin crosslinkages is thought to be one way in which LOX promotes metastasis: this alteration of the ECM helps to form microenvironments that recruit nonmalignant host cells into the primary tumor microenvironment, and these alterations to the local microenvironments enable premetastatic “permissive niches” to emerge that allow colonization of tumor cells and formation of secondary metastases [11].