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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2014 Apr 1.
Published in final edited form as: Curr Cancer Drug Targets. 2013 Nov;13(9):945–956. doi: 10.2174/15680096113136660100

Fig. 3. Role of CSCs in EMT process.

Fig. 3

Primary tumor consists of a heterogeneous population of cells, including epithelial cells, progenitor tumor cells, mesenchymal cells and cancer stem cells. Step 1: Epithelial cells from primary tumor undergo EMT to give rise to mesenchymal cells. Step 2: On undergoing an insult such as conventional chemotherapy and radiation it enriches the cancer stem cell population. These CSCs maintain their self-renewal property in the presence of CSC maintenance factors. Step 3: CSCs evade to the secondary sites and colonize at distant metastatic sites.