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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2023 Apr 18.
Published in final edited form as: Nat Rev Urol. 2022 Jun 28;19(9):515–533. doi: 10.1038/s41585-022-00608-y

Fig. 3 |. The bTME and the met-TMEs in various organs.

Fig. 3 |

a | The primary bladder tumour microenvironment (bTME), its cellular and non-cellular components supporting metastatic cancer cells to intravasate into the circulation. b | Extravasation of metastatic cancer cells and their colonization into distinct metastatic tumour microenvironments (met-TMEs) at different organs, such as lung, non-regional lymph nodes and liver. Airway smooth muscle cells are a newly identified lung met-TME that secrete collagens (distinct from the bTME) to support the preferential colonization of cancer cells that expresses the collagen receptor discoidin domain receptor 1 (DDR1). The metastatic colonies within airway smooth muscle cells have a different morphological phenotype from the typical lung metastatic foci within the alveoli space. The lymph node and liver met-TME remain largely uncharacterized; however, they could contain different TME components that support metastatic tumour outgrowth and are probably distinct from the primary bTME.