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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2013 Apr 1.
Published in final edited form as: Curr Opin Cell Biol. 2011 Dec 30;24(2):277–283. doi: 10.1016/j.ceb.2011.12.004

Figure 1. Invasion, migration and intravasation in tumors.

Figure 1

Tumor cells undergoing EMT form invadopodia and acquire a migratory phenotype. Degradation of basement membranes and extracellular matrix during migration is achieved by invadopodia. Cells migrate on the extracellular matrix (ECM) forming pseudopodia. There is evidence that invadopodia are involved in directional migration and chemotaxis at this step. Once tumor cells reach a blood vessel they are believed to again use invadopodia to degrade the basement membrane and enter the blood stream.