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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2014 Jan 1.
Published in final edited form as: Wiley Interdiscip Rev Syst Biol Med. 2012 Dec 3;5(1):111–124. doi: 10.1002/wsbm.1201

FIGURE 4. Components of Lymphatic Metastasis.

FIGURE 4

In contrast to functional blood vessels that can be found throughout the tumor, functional lymphatic vessels are found in the margin of tumors. These tumor margin lymphatic vessels tend to be enlarged and have greater lymph flow compared to lymphatic vessels draining normal tissues. These functional lymphatics are penetrated by invading cancer cells, which travel to the draining lymph node where they evade the immune system and start to form a secondary metastatic tumor. Understanding the growth of the cancer cells in the lymph node is critical to the development of effective treatment for these metastatic lesions.