FIGURE 1.

Representation of a melanoma tumor during invasion and metastasis. Tumor cells with epithelial and mesenchymal-like morphology are shown, along with other components of the tumor microenvironment, such as the extracellular matrix, immune cells and fibroblasts. The communication between these components, with lymph vessels, blood vessels and tumor cells may allow the tumor to spread. (A) Metastatic disease is found in patients with clinically identified proliferating melanoma, (B) but also in patients with an undetected source of tumor cells or evident primary lesion. DC, Dendritic cell; NK, Natural killer; T_reg, Regulatory T cell. Adapted from “Melanoma Staging”, by BioRender.com (2021). Retrieved from https://app.biorender.com/biorender-templates.