Figure - PMC

Skip to main content

An official website of the United States government

Here's how you know

Here's how you know

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

View full-text article in PMC

. 2019 Jun 6;14:4187–4209. doi: 10.2147/IJN.S198319

Search in PMC
Search in PubMed
View in NLM Catalog
Add to search

© 2019 Gribko et al. This work is published and licensed by Dove Medical Press Limited

The full terms of this license are available at https://www.dovepress.com/terms.php and incorporate the Creative Commons Attribution – Non Commercial (unported, v3.0) License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/). By accessing the work you hereby accept the Terms. Non-commercial uses of the work are permitted without any further permission from Dove Medical Press Limited, provided the work is properly attributed.

PMC Copyright notice

Characteristic stages of tumor-cell dissemination during metastasis.

Notes: Cells from primary tumors undergo epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT), leading to the loss of cell–cell adhesion and promoting local invasion into the blood vessels (intravasation). The CTCs produced are able to escape from blood vessels into distant organs of future metastasis (extravasation) after the reverse process (MET), induced by interaction with the local microenvironment.

Abbreviations: CTCs, circulating tumor cells; MET, mesenchymal-to-epithelial transition.