Fig. 1: Circulating tumour cells (CTCs) in gastrointestinal (GI) cancer metastasis.
From: Circulating tumour cells in gastrointestinal cancers: food for thought?
Primary tumours originating in various GI organs are complex entities consisting of heterogeneous tumour cell populations entangled with tumour microenvironment (TME) components like stromal cells, immune cells and microbiota. During the process of metastasis, cancer cells intravasate into circulation as various CTC entities, including single cells, homotypic clusters and heterotypic clusters. The liver and the lungs are the predominant metastatic sites, compared to peritoneum, bones and brain. Illustrations were created with BioRender.
