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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2022 Sep 1.
Published in final edited form as: Trends Cancer. 2021 Mar 12;7(9):809–822. doi: 10.1016/j.trecan.2021.02.003

Figure 1. Metastatic cascade.

Figure 1.

Cancer cells detach from the primary tumor site and spread to the brain through the systemic circulation. On their way, these cells may get arrested at brain capillary, leading to their death due to mechanical stress (A). Upon their arrival at the brain vasculature, the metastatic cells will have to undergo extravasation and invasion of the brain parenchyma, where they will need to survive the CNS microenvironment (B). The surviving cells will grow and form metastatic niches near blood vessels or, alternatively, they will enter a dormancy status and recur at some time (C).

Abbreviation: sFasL=soluble Fas Ligand