Fig. 1.

Clusters of Circulating Tumor Cells (CTCs) a Schematic illustrating that both individual CTCs and CTC clusters can be launched from the primary tumor into the bloodstream, and that clusters can form much more metastases. b Conditions that can foster formation of CTC clusters—(i) state of individual cells to be able to both migrate and adhere (i.e., hybrid E/M phenotype), and (ii) cell-cell communication among these cells to spatially rearrange to form a cluster. c Simulation of a layer of 50 × 50 cells that interact with one another via Notch signaling (left) predominantly via Delta ligands, and (right) predominantly via Jagged ligands. The color indicates the EMT status of each cell, as mentioned in the box (Adapted from Boareto et al. J R Soc Interface 2016 Fig. 4c, d ¹⁹)