N-acetylgalactosamine glycans function in cancer cell adhesion to endothelial cells: a role for truncated O-glycans in metastatic mechanisms.

•Cancer cell adhesion under sweeping flow increases over 1.5 hr, then plateaus.•Masking GalNAc-glycans specifically inhibits cancer cell adhesion from sweeping flow.•GalNAc-glycans function in cancer cell adhesion to endothelium under sweeping flow.•Post-adhesion, cancer cells are rounded and motile; later, they settle and flatten.