Figure 3.

Invasion and migration. Subsets of cancer cells at the primary site develop an invasive phenotype; survive environmental pressures such as hypoxia and nutrient deprivation, low pH, poor blood supply, immune, and inflammatory mediators, gaining the ability to metastasize to distant sites. These cancer cells can evade growth suppressors and circumvent inhibitors of cell proliferation to intravasate and disseminate to various other sites.