Fig. 1.

Sub-microenvironments within the TME of solid malignancies. TME is composed of an extensive vascular network, lymphatic vessels, soluble molecules, extracellular matrix and cells. Molecular factors secreted by cancerous cells, including CSCs, promote the corruption of healthy cells and the nature of the tumoral cells appears to condition the surrounding microenvironment. Based on this, it has been proposed two different sub-microenvironments: (i) a regenerative-like TME with a high accumulation of myofibroblast-like CAFs and tumor-supportive M2 TAMs located close to the CSCs in the tumor mass edges; and (ii) a pro-inflammatory TME with a high accumulation of both pro-inflammatory CAFs and tumor-suppressive M1 TAMs more distant from CSCs localization. Created with BioRender.com