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Figure 1 | Clinical and Translational Medicine

Figure 1

From: EMT and tumor metastasis

Figure 1

Changes that occur as a tumor cell undergoes EMT and then metastasizes at a secondary location. Epithelial tumor cells are shown in blue, and stromal cells are shown in green. As a tumor cell undergoes EMT, it begins to lose its epithelial phenotype as shown after step 2. Loss of cell-to-cell attachment receptors and integrins (shown in purple) also occurs and continues to step 3 and beyond. In addition, stromal cells near the cancer cell (which is undergoing EMT) are affected and begin undergoing changes (shown as a progression from green to red cells). Once a cancer cell has completely undergone EMT and travels to a new location, multiple steps (not explicitly shown) involving MET must occur for the metastatic cancer cell to anchor to the distant site and form a secondary tumor. The stromal cells at the new tumor location will also undergo change.

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