Figure 2.

Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in cancer progression. Different metastatic signals can activate one or more EMT-TFs which in turn trigger the EMT programme. During EMT, epithelial cells lose their apical-basal polarity and acquire mesenchymal traits that facilitate motility and contribute to the invasion-metastasis cascade. Some EMT-TFs directly control the expression of E-cadherin, whose functional loss is regarded as a hallmark of EMT. During EMT, hybrid epithelial/mesenchymal (E/M) states are also associated with tumour heterogeneity, tumour cell dissemination, cancer stem cell-like traits as well as immune evasion and resistance against conventional and targeted therapies.